The Scarlet Letter is the story of three New England settlers at odds with the Puritan society in which they live. Roger Chillingworth, an ageing scholar, arrives in New England after two years' separation from his wife Hester to find her on trial for adultery. She refuses to reveal her lover's identity and is condemned to wear a scarlet letter 'A' sewn on to her clothes. Roger resolves to discover the man's identity, and over the next seven years the participants in the love triangle suffer the consequences of betrayal, cowardice and humiliation, before moving towards redemption at the novel's climax.

This is a troubling story of crime, sin, guilt, punishment and expiation, set in the rigid moral climate of 17th century New England. The young mother of an illegitimate child confronts her Puritan judges. However, it is not so much her harshsentence, but the cruelties of slowly exposed guilt as her lover is revealed, that hold the reader enthralled all the way to the book`s poignant climax.