After having a child out of wedlock, a young Puritan woman is pressured to reveal the name of her lover.

In Puritan Boston, seamstress Hester Prynne is punished for playing on the Sabbath day, but kind minister Arthur Dimmesdale takes pity on her. The two fall in love, but their relationship cannot be: Hester is already married to Roger Prynne, a physician who has been missing for seven years. Dimmesdale must go away to England; when he returns, he finds Hester pregnant with their child and the focus of the town's censure. In a humiliating public ceremony, she is forced to don the scarlet letter A--for adultery--and wear it for the rest of her life. The church fathers encourage Dimmesdale to demand that Hester name the person with whom she sinned.—Gary Dickerson <[email protected]>