Jennifer Lawrence stars in this biographical drama about Joy Mangano, the inventor of the Miracle Mop. Single mother of three Joy Mangano (Lawrence) has always dreamed of a better life for her family, but with her father (Robert De Niro)'s constant belittling of her skills and her mother (Isabella Rossellini)'s insistence on her remaining a mother and nothing more, Joy's determination to make something of herself takes over and she sets about starting up her own business to prove her parents wrong. When an executive (Bradley Cooper) of the Home Shopping Network shows an interest in her idea for a self-wringing mop, Joy's life takes a dramatic turn as she finds her identity changing from mother to inventor and entrepreneur.

Told primarily through diary entries over the course of a single year, Nerissa is a fascinating story of love and coming of age in turn of the century Scotland. A young painter laboring under sexism in the art world finds herself in the arms of an older lover. As she candidly reveals the complex attitudes and desires of a girl suddenly struggling with her power over men and the temperament of an artist, we find parallels between her life and the life of the modern day painter who unearthed her lost diary. Nerissa is Elisabeth Rohm's first novel.