The book opens with a chapter called "The Custom House," in which the narrator of the book writes a long description recalling his days as the chief executive officer of the Customs House in Salem, Massachusetts. He describes the customs house as a run-down, half-finished building located on a rotting dock and characterizes his coworkers as elderly and incompetent. One day as he is exploring the vacant second story of the erection he discovers a red and gold piece of fabric in the shape of the letter "A." After he examines the material, he uncovers a manuscript wrapped in the cloth, which he later reads. Jonathan Pue, a customs surveyor, wrote the composition a hundred years before, about an account of events that happened in the mid-seventeenth century. The narrator reads it and subsequently decides to write a fictional story out of Hester Prynne's experiences. Though he knows his story will not be exactly accurate in fact

The grand procession passes through the marketplace: first a company of armored soldiers, then a stolid and strict group of town fathers. Hester is displeased to see the Puritan power displayed with such pomp. She also notices that the minister, who is at the end of the procession, looks much more energetic and robust than he has for some time. Pearl barely recognizes her father with his new appearance, and Hester feels sad because the minister's countenance makes him seem remote. The mother begins to doubt the cleverness of their plans. Mistress Hibbins then comes up to Hester and tells her that the minister's mark from the Black Man will soon be plain to all. Hester presently takes her place at the foot of the scaffold to listen to Reverend Dimmesdale's sermon. After Pearl returns with a message from the shipmaster to her, conveying that Chillingworth will be riding with Dimmesdale, and so she only needed to worry about Pearl and herself, Hester realizes that everyone is staring at her.  

Hester intends to reveal Chillingworth's true identity and purport to Dimmesdale. She arranges a meeting with the minister in the nearby forest. She is conscious that her husband has most likely guessed her plans to reveal his secret. Pearl and Hester wait by the brook in the forest, and Pearl tries to catch some of the transitory sunshine in the forest. Strangely, the sunshine seems to avoid Hester and "plays with Pearl."  The little girl next asks her mother to explain the relevance of the scarlet letter to the "Black Man," or Satan. Hester tells Pearl she had met the Black Man once and the scarlet letter is his mark. As the minister approaches, Pearl wonders fleetingly, before she goes off to play in the woods, if the Black Man has also met the reverend, and that the minister clutches his hand over his heart because that is where his mark is.

Meanwhile, Pearl, who always takes delight in her mother's scarlet letter, has made a green "A" at the beach and placed it on her dress. Unusually bright, the child begins to ask acute and observant questions: "What does the letter mean, mother? and why dost thou wear it? and why does the minister keep his hand over his heart?" Hester is surprised by her daughter's ability to connect the scarlet letter to the minister's ailment; in response, the mother denies the true meaning of the letter, instead answering "I wear it for the sake of its gold thread."  

Dimmesdale now leaves the forest with renewed health and happiness, going over the plans in his mind. He and his lover and daughter have decided to go to Europe, because it is better for his fragile health. Hester has connections to a crew of a ship, which is to leave for England in four days. As he walks through the town, the minister finds things that were once so familiar now so strange. When he passes an old lady of his church, instead of feeling a need to say holy or spiritual phrases to them, he instead has an urge to shout out blasphemic arguments against the human soul. He is afraid to talk to a young woman, a new member of his church, for fear he might plant perverted thoughts in her head, and must force himself to ignore a group of children to avoid the possibility of the teaching them bad words. His last encounter is with Mistress Hibbins, Governor Bellingham's widowed sister who is later convicted as a witch. She cackles at him and offers to be his escort next time he makes a trip to the forest. This statement disturbs Dimmesdale because it implies that he may have had an exchange with the Devil. When the reverend arrives home, he tells Chillingworth he has no need for his physical medicines any more and begins to rewrite his election sermon, an important speech for the following day.  

Some topics in this essay:
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