In a small and austere Puritan community in seventeenth-century New England, a woman named Hester Prynne faces ostracism and condemnation after being caught in an act of adultery. The story begins with Hester being taken to the center of the town to be publicly humiliated. With her newborn daughter in her arms, Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter "A" (for adulteress) on her breast, a symbol of her sin and the society's disdain.