Returning from her honeymoon with her husband, scholar Jorgen, the cold and manipulative Hedda Gabler is unmoved by the sacrifices he's made to provide her with an elegant home. But when she learns that Jorgen's rival for a university position, Ejlert, has made a surprising comeback with a recent publication, she's quick to push him back into his former alcoholism, steal the sequel to his book and even encourage the writer to kill himself.