Hedda, beautiful daughter of the late General Gabler, returns from her honeymoon with scholar husband Jorgen to confront the boredom and banality of married life. Although she has little more than amused contempt for her husband, she is pregnant by him and is revolted by the thought of carrying his child and the changes that motherhood will impose upon her future. When the re-appearance of an old flame of hers threatens both Jorgen's career prospects and her own amour propre, Hedda contrives to bring about Lovborg's destruction but, in the process, also brings about her own.