【背叛與贖罪：紅字後的愛與寬容】
時值1642年，美麗的海斯特‧白蘭抱著孩子，因通姦罪受到清教徒的懲罰，她必須在胸前配戴一個紅色的A字，並受到村子裡所有人的唾棄。
海斯特高貴的神情與容貌，一點沒有一個通姦女子該有的恥辱與羞愧，令台下的眾人憤怒不已，而台下有一個矮小、身軀畸形的男人則暗暗立下報仇的誓言─他是海斯特的丈夫，醫生齊靈沃斯，海斯特以為他在航海時失蹤，而現在齊靈沃斯回來了，決心揪出孩子的生父。
但無論威爾遜牧師和汀梅斯戴爾牧師如何勸說海斯特，她都不肯透露誰是孩子的父親，即便在齊靈沃斯的威脅與逼問，海斯特依然堅決不說，怒火中燒的齊靈沃斯於是狠狠威脅她最好守住這個秘密，若被他發現，一定會親手殺了那個男人，海斯特答應了。服完刑後，她獨自一人帶著孩子─珠兒生活在偏遠的城鎮，靠著細緻的手工刺繡維生。過著低調的生活，但珠兒長大後個性較難管束，許多的行為流傳到教會裡，不該把孩子給海斯特的流言又甚囂塵上，汀梅斯戴爾牧師在海斯特哀求下說服州長繞海斯特保有扶養權利。
齊靈沃斯受到鎮民委託幫助治療備受鎮民愛戴的汀梅斯戴爾牧師，似乎因為某個原因而導致他身體不斷衰退，海斯特也時常來探訪，齊靈沃斯慢慢看出兩人之間似乎不僅是教徒與牧師的普通關係...
霍桑寫出清教徒時期的美國移民社會的保守封建，相比之下女主角海斯特的對愛與自由的追求，超前時代的勇氣與堅持更顯得與眾不同，也讓故事最終獲得完滿的結局。
The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is a work of historical fiction by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. Set in Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and then struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Containing a number of religious and historic allusions, the book explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.
Its great burden is the weight of unacknowledged sin as seen in the remorse and cowardice and suffering of the Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale. Contrasted with his concealed agony is the constant confession, conveyed by the letter, which is forced upon Hester, and has a double effect, — a healthful one, working beneficently, and making her helpful and benevolent, tolerant and thoughtful ; and an unhealthful one, which by the great emphasis placed on her transgression, the keeping her forever under its ban and isolating her from her fellows, prepares her to break away from the long repression and lapse again into sin when she plans her flight. Roger Chillingworth is an embodiment of subtle and refined revenge.
The book though corresponding in its tone and burden to some of the shorter stories, had a more startling and dramatic character, and a strangeness, which at once took hold of a larger public than any of those had attracted. Though imperfectly comprehended, and even misunderstood in some quarters, it was seen to have a new and unique quality; and Hawthorne's reputation became national.
