Hester Prynne goes studying in Boston, Massachussets. Her husband, an English scholar, will join her later. While there, she has an affair with the young Arthur Dimmesdale and bears him a daughter, Pearl. She is severely punished by the Puritan law: first she is kept in prison, where Pearl was born, then she is condemned to wear the scarlet letter 'A' (for Adulteress)
She refuses to reveal Pearl's father name but meanwhile Roger Chillingworth, her husband, pretending to be a doctor torments Dimmesdale to take his revenge. Hester becomes a needlewoman and gains the respect of the community. Someone says the 'A' on her dress stands for 'able'. Dimmesdale is torn by guilt and becomes ill. At the end, he publicly confesses his sin and shows a scarlet letter 'A' on his naked chest before dying in Hester's arms.
Chillingworth dies a year later and leaves his fortune to Pearl, who goes abroad with her mother and marries an European aristocrat. Hester returns to town and spends her life doing charitable work. When she dies, the letter 'A' is put on her tombstone.