A glamorous brothel madam, well known and loved by movie stars in 1940s Los Angeles, adopts a naive young girl, freeing her from cruel Catholic nuns running an orphanage. Della Crittenden names her after a silent-film star, Zelda Diamond. As a teenager, Zelda begins to wonder about her real mother, especially after getting into a violent argument about it with the sadistic Della. Stealing thousands of dollars from Della's safe, Zelda runs away from the brothel with her lover, Jasmine, along a deadly path in search of the mother she never knew.
