Introduction

As ten-year-old Marly Colone stands in front of her tiny, four-room house in a small Illinois town in the autumn of 1966, she takes one look at the dark-haired, handsome stranger walking toward her on the sidewalk and knows. He is her destiny, and nothing will change her mind. She has just found the man she will marry.

Background

Her beloved father had died abruptly the previous spring, propelling Marly from the innocence of childhood into the uncertain, often tumultuous world of a blended family after her mother remarries. In a bizarre twist of fate, Marly comes face-to-face once again with her soulmate, Johnny, who happens to be her new stepbrother and twelve years her senior.

Plot

Determined to do anything to make Johnny notice her, the love-starved Marly embarks down a dangerous path, desperate to replace her father with a man who happens to share many of the same mannerisms. Lost in the murky world between adolescence and adulthood, Marly has no doubt she has claimed her destiny.

Theme

Dirty Laundry is a tale of forbidden love as a young girl desperately searches for validation and affection in an unlikely place.