Boston, mid-17th century: Hester Prynne, dignified and silent, is led
through prison doors to her public shaming by her censorious Puritan
neighbors. Holding her illegitimate child to her breast and bearing a
bright scarlet letter "A" embroidered on her bodice, Hester must now
struggle to create a new life for herself and her child in this harsh
and unforgiving community. When her missing spouse reappears and takes
up residence in town under an assumed identity, the stage is set for an
explosive confrontation between the truly moral and the merely
religious.