The evolution of several structural characteristics during isothermal heat treatment of poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) was studied. In this work, heat treatment was interrupted after different treatment times, with the specimens immediately quenched to room temperature. These specimens were then characterized by tensile testing, wide- and small-angle x-ray scattering, and optical microscopy. Structural parameters obtained from these measurements relate to crystal perfection (via the paracrystalline axial distortion parameter), axial crystallite size, transverse crystallite size, degree of chain misorientation, and degree of pleating. Structural and mechanical parameters were then plotted against heat-treatment time to obtain kinetic isotherms for each parameter. The kinetics of the removal of chain misorientation parallels that of tensile modulus increase under all conditions. Of the other structural parameters, only the kinetics of pleat removal mimics that of modulus change, indicating that pleat removal is the effective cause of increased chain alignment and thereby of increased axial stiffness.