This work treats an introduction to commutative ring theory and algebraic plane curves, requiring of the reader only a basic knowledge of algebra, with all of the algebraic facts collected into several appendices that can be easily referred to, as needed. Kunz's proven conception of teaching topics in commutative algebra together with their applications to algebraic geometry makes this book significantly different from others on plane algebraic curves. Examples, exercises, figures, and suggestions for further study round out this fairly self-contained textbook.