Raised knowing little beyond the life of the brothel, Violet can imagine nothing else, and tends to romanticize her mother's life, especially when a photographer, E.J. Violet, who plays inside the brothel walls and counts the prostitutes as her playmates, stands on the cusp of entering her mother's profession. Set in 1917 New Orleans and the infamous red light district of Storyville, Louis Malle's Pretty Baby (1978) centers on a beautiful prostitute Hattie (Susan Sarandon) and her 12-year-old 'trick baby' daughter Violet (Brooke Shields).
