Act I: The home of Reverend Parris, Salem, Massachusetts, spring of 1692
Reverend Samuel Parris’s daughter, Betty, lies immobile and scarcely breathing, as she has since her father came upon her and her cousin, Abigail, dancing in the woods the night before. Parris’s slave, Tituba, comes to ask about Betty but is angrily sent away.

Parris’s niece, Abigail, enters to say that the town is whispering of witchcraft and that Parris should make a denial. He bitterly questions her about the dancing and her mysterious dismissal from the service of the Proctors. She vehemently denies any wrongdoing  and says she refuses to be a slave in someone else’s house. The Putnams enter to say that their Ruth was stricken at the same time as Betty and that they have sent for Reverend Hale, known for his expertise in discovering witches.

Parris, fearful of anything that might taint his reputation and position in Salem, anxiously doubts the need for Hale. Rebecca and Francis Nurse enter with their friend Giles Corey. The Nurses are two of the most respected elders of Salem. When Putnam insists that witches are at work in Salem, Giles accuses him of using these scare tactics to defraud his neighbors of their land. John Proctor’s entrance intensifies this quarrel. Young Abigail is secretly smitten with her former boss, John Proctor. Rebecca reprimands the men for this squabble. She says that the girls are just going through a childish phase. Giles departs with John.

They sing a psalm to beseech God’s help. Betty begins to writhe on the bed and then tries to fly out of the window. They rush to her side. In the midst of the commotion Reverend Hale enters. He calms them and then methodically begins an inquiry. He soon learns that Tituba has played an important role, having also been present at the dancing. Ann Putnam asserts that Tituba knows conjuring. Tituba is sent for. Abigail, who has absorbed all the adult conversation about witchcraft, accuses Tituba of compacting with the Devil. Tituba finally confesses that she has been visited by the Devil. Hale presses her to name other witches in the town. Ann Putnam suggests a name,  and Tituba confirms that Sarah Goode is also a witch. This naming of names confirms Hale’s belief that there are witches in Salem, and it is cause for celebration. Betty wakes. All return to the psalm in thanksgiving. Abigail envies the attention now being given to Tituba, hysterically repents her own compact with the Devil, and she blossoms as the group turns to rejoice in her transformation. 

Act II: The home of John and Elizabeth Proctor, eight days later
John Proctor returns from a day’s planting to find Elizabeth listless and moody. The witch trials have aggravated her domestic troubles, with Abigail at the center of both. We discover that John had a brief affair with Abigail while she was working as an indentured servant in their home. Elizabeth insists that John expose Abigail’s fraud to Judge Danforth; John’s reluctance convinces her that he still has feelings for Abigail. John’s self-defense is that he has no witness to what Abigail told him, and that she will avenge herself by revealing John’s adultery with her. And he is frustrated with Elizabeth’s condemnatory judgment of him. She gently denies this but regrets the vanished sweetness of their love. Abigail, she says, will not confess the lechery lest she damn herself. And what of those who suffer in jail because of John’s silence? She insists that John must tear all feeling for Abigail out of his heart or she will never give up hope of some day having him for her own.

Mary Warren, who is also a servant in the Proctor home, enters from her day at court as one of Abigail’s witchfinders. She tearfully tells them that the number of those arrested has tripled and that Goody Osburn has been condemned to hang. She is truly troubled, but demonstrates how the mob excitement of the courtroom turns her into an hysterical accuser against her will. When John threatens to whip her if she returns to court she blurts out that Elizabeth has been mentioned in court and that only Mary’s defense of her prevented an outright accusation.

Elizabeth is sure that Abigail is behind this and pleads with John to go to court. Reverend Hale and Ezekiel Cheever enter with a warrant for her arrest; Abigail has charged Elizabeth with using a witch’s poppet to kill her. John makes Mary acknowledge it is her poppet, but Hale, deeply troubled, says that Judge Danforth makes these decisions, and so he must arrest Elizabeth.

As they take Elizabeth away, John turns upon Mary to tell her story in court even though it may provoke a charge of adultery from Abigail and ruin him completely—anything rather than Elizabeth being in danger for his sake.  

Act III, Scene 1: The forest, at night two days later
Abigail tries to persuade John to abandon Elizabeth and join her in cleansing the corrupt town. He instead pleads that she free the town from her foolish wickedness, then threatens to expose her fraud. She defies him, saying Elizabeth’s fate will be his doing.

Scene 2: A townhall in Salem Town, that afternoon
Judge Danforth’s invocation in court reveals his conviction that God is working through him to cleanse the land of witches. As court opens, Giles Corey accuses Thomas Putnam of charging witchcraft on Corey’s wife and Rebecca Nurse. Judge Danforth sends Corey to jail for refusing to name his witnesses for this accusation. There is a great hubbub as Giles leaps at Putnam. As Corey is dragged away, Judge Danforth says Giles will be “pressed” by piling heavy rocks on his chest until he names names. The crowd is horrified by this torture.

John Proctor presents Mary Warren’s deposition that the entire crying-out against witches started only as a game for the girls and is a complete fraud. But Abigail, he says, has continued it to dispose of Elizabeth because of his adultery with Abigail, which he now confesses. Elizabeth is brought in but fails to confirm John’s confession. Abigail counterattacks by charging that Mary herself has turned witch. Mary hysterically accuses John of being the Devil’s man and forcing her into trying to confuse the court. All but Reverend Hale and Francis Nurse close in on John Proctor with a fury of vindictiveness.  

Act IV: A makeshift prison in Salem Town, fall of the same year
Tituba and Sarah Good sit after months of imprisonment. The hangings have increased and hundreds have been accused of witchcraft. Tituba sings about her dream of freedom, joy, and then, when she learns the truth, she sings of lost hope. Sarah Goode was historically one of the women who refused to confess to witchcraft and was subsequently hung. Here she moans of the loss of her dead baby. Abigail comes into the prison courtyard; she has bribed the jailer to permit John Proctor to escape. John, although broken by months of prison and torture, rejects the freedom and love she offers him. Abigail runs off weeping.

Hale and Danforth enter. Salem is in chaos. Hale realizes that he may have made a mistake in supporting the concept of witchcraft. Hale and then Parris try to persuade Judge Danforth to postpone the executions of Proctor and Rebecca Nurse scheduled for that morning. Salem may break into open rebellion at the execution of such respected citizens. Danforth indignantly refuses, but agrees to ask Elizabeth to persuade her husband to confess.

John is brought in and left alone with Elizabeth. She tells him that Giles Corey has died from being pressed by rocks rather than answer the charge of witchcraft, but that many have confessed. John reluctantly brings out his own wish to confess—if it will not make her think ill of him for lying. Passionately she answers that it was her lie that doomed him and that she wants him alive. Exultant, he shouts that he will confess to the charge of witchcraft.

Danforth, Hale, and Parris rejoice, for their various reasons, over Proctor’s confession, and Parris tries to persuade Rebecca, who has been brought in on the way to the gallows, also to confess. She refuses to damn herself with the lie. John is asked to sign his confession for exhibition before the town. But this is too much: he has deeply shamed himself by confessing, but he will not destroy his own name and shame his sons. He tears up the document. In fury, Danforth orders John and Rebecca to be led out to execution. Hale pleads with Elizabeth to change John’s mind. She refuses, saying, “He has found his name and his goodness now—God forbid I take it from him.”