Mr. Hooper, the parson in the town of Milford, New England, is a “gentlemanly person” of about 30 years of age. Though he is a bachelor, he dresses with “due clerical neatness” as if under the care of “a careful wife” (1). He is seen as “a good preacher, but not an energetic one” (3), until the day he suddenly and inexplicably appears for service with a black veil covering his face so that only his mouth and chin are visible. The sermon, on the topic of “secret sin” that we hide from our loved ones and from ourselves, feels more powerful that any the people have heard from him. Mr. Hooper never removes the mask again, wearing it despite the pain he feels when people shun him from their social circles and avoid him on the street. Even his fiancée abandons him, calling off their engagement when he refuses to remove the veil. Though the people speculate that he is mad or that he is performing a penance for a great crime, they also find him to be a more powerful parson than he ever was before, and his company is sought by dying sinners.

Mr. Hooper does not reveal the meaning of the veil.