An Enemy of the People recap

Doctor Thomas Stockmann discovers that the water supplying his town's celebrated baths is contaminated by industrial waste. The press and local reformers initially support him, but his brother Peter, the mayor, explains that rebuilding the system will be expensive and require a long closure. Once property owners fear higher taxes, the newspaper and civic leaders reverse themselves. Denied publication and an orderly hearing, Thomas speaks at a turbulent public meeting, broadening his attack from the baths to the complacent majority that suppresses uncomfortable truths. The town declares him an enemy of the people. His windows are broken, he and his daughter lose their jobs, and his family faces eviction. His father-in-law further traps him by investing the family's expected inheritance in the baths. Rejecting both pressure and opportunistic offers, Thomas chooses to remain in town, educate his children, and continue the fight with the support of his family and Captain Horster.

Doctor Thomas Stockmann lives with his wife Katherine, their children, and frequent visitors in a coastal town whose new public baths have begun attracting wealth and attention. Thomas serves as the baths' medical officer; his elder brother Peter is mayor and heads the baths committee. Thomas has suspected that illness among visitors comes from polluted water, and a laboratory report confirms that dangerous contamination is entering the system from the area of the tanneries. He had argued during construction that the intake pipes should follow a different route, and now believes the baths must be publicly exposed and rebuilt. Hovstad and Billing of the People's Messenger see the discovery as an opportunity to challenge the officials who control the town, while Thomas imagines that he will be thanked for protecting the public. He writes a report for the committee and celebrates the prospect that the town can correct its mistake before more people are harmed.

Peter confronts Thomas with the practical and political consequences of the report. Reconstructing the water system would be extremely expensive, close the baths for years, and damage the town's reputation. He proposes smaller measures and demands that Thomas publicly deny or qualify his findings. Thomas refuses to accept a remedy he believes will leave visitors at risk. Peter responds that a subordinate officer has no right to defy the committee and warns that Thomas may lose his position. Meanwhile Hovstad, Billing, and the printer Aslaksen promise to publish Thomas's article. Each has a different political interest in the controversy, but together they encourage him to see the dispute as a larger struggle against entrenched authority. Katherine fears for the family's livelihood, while Petra openly supports her father. Convinced that facts and public opinion are on his side, Thomas decides to fight Peter's attempt to suppress the report.

At the newspaper office, the promised support collapses. Peter explains that Thomas's proposed reconstruction would burden local taxpayers and that the baths' loss of business could impoverish the town. Aslaksen retreats in the name of protecting small property owners, and Hovstad follows once he sees that his readers will oppose the expense. The editors refuse to print Thomas's report and allow Peter to publish an official statement instead. Thomas resolves to present the evidence directly at a public meeting. Captain Horster, who is not dependent on the town's political factions, offers his house when other venues are denied. Katherine, having seen the organized effort against her husband, moves from urging caution to standing with him. Thomas goes to the meeting still confident that ordinary citizens will recognize the truth once they hear it without official interference.

The meeting at Captain Horster's house is packed and hostile. Aslaksen is elected chairman, and the mayor's allies persuade the crowd that Thomas should not be allowed to deliver his announced lecture about the baths. Thomas changes course and attacks what he sees as the deeper source of the problem: a compact majority that mistakes numbers for truth, follows inherited opinions, and silences people whose knowledge threatens comfortable interests. His sweeping language antagonizes potential allies and gives his opponents an easier target than the contaminated water. Hovstad and others who recently supported him now denounce him. The assembly formally brands Thomas an enemy of the people, and the crowd turns threatening as he and his family leave under Captain Horster's protection. Thomas declares that he would rather see the town ruined than prosper through deception, while the immediate cost of his uncompromising stand begins to fall on everyone close to him.

The morning after the meeting, stones have shattered the Stockmanns' windows. Thomas is dismissed from the baths, Petra loses her teaching job, Captain Horster is punished by his employers, and the family's landlord gives notice under pressure from other citizens. Morten Kiil reveals that he bought a large block of devalued baths shares with the money Katherine and the children expected to inherit. He demands a retraction, since Thomas's continued campaign will destroy the investment and may force Kiil's tanneries to pay for the pollution. Hovstad and Aslaksen assume the purchases were Thomas's scheme and offer favorable publicity if he shares the profit or supports the paper; Thomas angrily rejects them. Although he had planned to emigrate with his family, he decides that leaving would surrender the town to the forces he opposes. Supported by Katherine and Petra, he will remain, teach his sons and a group of poor children to think independently, and continue pressing the truth about the baths despite his isolation.

After the public meeting, the Stockmann home is attacked, Thomas loses his post at the baths, Petra is dismissed from her school, and their landlord orders the family out. Captain Horster also suffers for giving Thomas a venue. Morten Kiil then reveals that he has used the money Katherine and the children expected to inherit to buy cheap shares in the baths. He demands that Thomas retract his accusation, since the family will otherwise lose the investment and the tanneries may bear the blame. Hovstad and Aslaksen mistakenly treat the purchases as evidence that Thomas engineered the controversy for profit and offer the newspaper's help in return for support; he drives them away. Although leaving for another country remains possible, Thomas decides to stay. He plans to continue proving his case, educate his sons at home, and teach poor children to think independently. With Katherine and Petra beside him, he accepts isolation and concludes that a person who stands alone for the truth can possess a different kind of strength.