 New England in the 17th century: Young Hester Prynne arrives at the colony with the purpose to find a house for herself and her husband, old doctor Roger Prynne, who still resides in good old England and will follow later. From the first day the other inhabitants of the village notice that Hester is intelligent and independent, which attracts the ones and strucks the others. When she, however, finds herself a house near the forest and takes a walk in it she sees by chance a naked young man swimming in the river nearby. The man, as she finds out later, is the very popular Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The two soon find themselves attracted to each other and secretly begin an affair. As the result of this Hester becomes pregnant and when the government finds out, she is showed up in public and has to wear a scarlet "A" as "adultery" on her chest. Because of this but also because she refuses to tell the name of her child s father, she goes into jail where she gives birth to her daughter, Pearl. Then, surprisingly, Roger Prynne, whose ship was supposed to have been destroyed in a storm with no survivors, appears in the village. The doctor is now driven by the idea to find out who was Hester s lover and destroy his life, as well as the life of Hester.