The story The Scarlet Letter begins in seventeenth-century Boston, then a settlement. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter “A” was placed on her breast. A man in the crowd tells an elderly onlooker that Hester is being punished for adultery.
Hester’s husband, a scholar who is much older than she is, sent her ahead to America, but he never arrived in Boston. The rumor was that he had been lost at sea. Little di everyone know that the elderly onlooker was indeed Hester’s husband who was now practicing medicine and changed his name to Robert Chillingworth. He lives in Boston, and is there for revenge. He reveals his true identity to no one but Hester, whom he has sworn to secrecy.
As several years pass by Hester supports herself by working as a seamstress, and Pearl grows into a child. Shunned and hated by the community, they live in a small cottage on the outskirts of Boston. Community officials attempt to take Pearl away from Hester, but, with the help of Arthur Dimmesdale, a young minister, the mother and daughter manage to stay together. Sometime during the story Arthur and Hester begin to somewhat start “dating”.
In order to get out of Boston and away from Robert Chillingworth they will take a ship sailing from Boston in four days to Europe where they can live with Pearl as a family. Feeling a sense of freedom and relief Hester decides to let her hair down and removes her scarlet letter.