Abandoned by her husband in 19th-century Salem, Scottish seamstress Isobel Gamble meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the two are instantly drawn to each other. Hawthorne is a man haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows--while Isobel is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. In this vivid re-creation of the tumultuous New England of the era, Nathaniel and Isobel grow closer and closer, and he will get his first glimmer of inspiration for his novel, The Scarlet Letter.