The story of Hester Prynne, a seamstress in puritanical Boston in the mid-1600s, is about how she is shunned after becoming pregnant by a reverend who is well-liked. She won't say who the father is, so she is "convicted" of adultery and made to wear a scarlet "A" until an attack by Indians brings the Puritans together and makes them rethink their laws and morals.