Halvard Solness is the middle-aged Master Builder of a small town in Norway who has become a successful architect of some distinction and local reputation. One day while having a visit from his friend Doctor Herdal, Solness is visited by Hilde Wangel, a young woman of twenty-four from another town whom the doctor promptly recognizes from a recent trip. Soon after the Doctor leaves and Solness is alone with Hilde, she reminds him that they are not strangers and that they had previously met in her home town ten years ago when she was fourteen years of age.