diff --git a/src/BuildConfig.php b/src/BuildConfig.php
index 07320b1..7817faf 100644
--- a/src/BuildConfig.php
+++ b/src/BuildConfig.php
@@ -30,6 +30,10 @@ class BuildConfig
     private $subdirectoryToBuild;
     private $excludedPaths;
     private $fileFinder;
+    // needed to know if we're building an entire directory of RST contents or just a single RST string
+    private $contentIsString;
+    // these are the *.fjson files generated by Sphinx and maintained for compatibility reasons
+    private $generateJsonFiles;
 
     public function __construct()
     {
@@ -38,6 +42,8 @@ public function __construct()
         $this->symfonyVersion = '4.4';
         $this->excludedPaths = [];
         $this->imagesPublicPrefix = '';
+        $this->contentIsString = false;
+        $this->generateJsonFiles = true;
     }
 
     public function createFileFinder(): Finder
@@ -128,6 +134,16 @@ public function getImagesPublicPrefix(): string
         return $this->imagesPublicPrefix;
     }
 
+    public function generateJsonFiles(): bool
+    {
+        return $this->generateJsonFiles;
+    }
+
+    public function isContentAString(): bool
+    {
+        return $this->contentIsString;
+    }
+
     public function setSymfonyVersion(string $version): self
     {
         $this->symfonyVersion = $version;
@@ -219,4 +235,23 @@ public function setExcludedPaths(array $excludedPaths)
 
         $this->excludedPaths = $excludedPaths;
     }
+
+    /*
+     * Call this method when you're building a string of RST contents (e.g. the
+     * contents of a single file) instead of the common case of building an
+     * entire directory of RST files.
+     */
+    public function setContentIsString(): self
+    {
+        $this->contentIsString = true;
+
+        return $this;
+    }
+
+    public function disableJsonFileGeneration(): self
+    {
+        $this->generateJsonFiles = false;
+
+        return $this;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/BuildResult.php b/src/BuildResult.php
index a31a71a..840914e 100644
--- a/src/BuildResult.php
+++ b/src/BuildResult.php
@@ -17,7 +17,10 @@ class BuildResult
 {
     private $builder;
     private $errors;
+    // only defined when using build() method
     private $jsonResults = [];
+    // only defined when using buildString() method
+    private $stringResult = null;
 
     public function __construct(Builder $builder)
     {
@@ -45,6 +48,11 @@ public function getErrors(): array
         return $this->errors;
     }
 
+    public function getErrorTrace(): string
+    {
+        return implode("\n", $this->errors);
+    }
+
     public function getMetadata(): Metas
     {
         return $this->builder->getMetas();
@@ -72,4 +80,18 @@ public function setJsonResults(array $jsonResults): void
     {
         $this->jsonResults = $jsonResults;
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the HTML result of building some string contents
+     * using the buildString() builder method
+     */
+    public function getStringResult(): ?string
+    {
+        return $this->stringResult;
+    }
+
+    public function setStringResult(string $result): void
+    {
+        $this->stringResult = $result;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/DocBuilder.php b/src/DocBuilder.php
index 1f1b079..46ce806 100644
--- a/src/DocBuilder.php
+++ b/src/DocBuilder.php
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 use Doctrine\RST\Builder;
 use Symfony\Component\Console\Output\NullOutput;
+use Symfony\Component\DomCrawler\Crawler;
 use Symfony\Component\Filesystem\Filesystem;
 use SymfonyDocsBuilder\CI\MissingFilesChecker;
 use SymfonyDocsBuilder\Generator\HtmlForPdfGenerator;
@@ -38,15 +39,49 @@ public function build(BuildConfig $config): BuildResult
             $filesystem->dumpFile($config->getOutputDir().'/build_errors.txt', implode("\n", $buildResult->getErrors()));
         }
 
-        $metas = $buildResult->getMetadata();
-        if ($config->getSubdirectoryToBuild()) {
+        if ($config->isContentAString()) {
+            $htmlFilePath = $config->getOutputDir().'/index.html';
+            if (is_file($htmlFilePath)) {
+                // generated HTML contents are a full HTML page, so we need to
+                // extract the contents of the <body> tag
+                $crawler = new Crawler(file_get_contents($htmlFilePath));
+                $buildResult->setStringResult(trim($crawler->filter('body')->html()));
+            }
+        } elseif ($config->getSubdirectoryToBuild()) {
+            $metas = $buildResult->getMetadata();
             $htmlForPdfGenerator = new HtmlForPdfGenerator($metas, $config);
             $htmlForPdfGenerator->generateHtmlForPdf();
-        } else {
+        } elseif ($config->generateJsonFiles()) {
+            $metas = $buildResult->getMetadata();
             $jsonGenerator = new JsonGenerator($metas, $config);
             $buildResult->setJsonResults($jsonGenerator->generateJson($builder->getIndexName()));
         }
 
         return $buildResult;
     }
+
+    public function buildString(string $contents): BuildResult
+    {
+        $filesystem = new Filesystem();
+        $tmpDir = sys_get_temp_dir().'/doc_builder_build_string_'.random_int(1, 100000000);
+        if ($filesystem->exists($tmpDir)) {
+            $filesystem->remove($tmpDir);
+        }
+        $filesystem->mkdir($tmpDir);
+
+        $filesystem->dumpFile($tmpDir.'/index.rst', $contents);
+
+        $buildConfig = (new BuildConfig())
+            ->setContentIsString()
+            ->setContentDir($tmpDir)
+            ->setOutputDir($tmpDir.'/output')
+            ->disableBuildCache()
+            ->disableJsonFileGeneration()
+        ;
+
+        $buildResult = $this->build($buildConfig);
+        $filesystem->remove($tmpDir);
+
+        return $buildResult;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/tests/IntegrationTest.php b/tests/IntegrationTest.php
index 31fe408..7bf7737 100644
--- a/tests/IntegrationTest.php
+++ b/tests/IntegrationTest.php
@@ -261,6 +261,54 @@ public function parserUnitBlockProvider()
         ];
     }
 
+    public function testParseString()
+    {
+        $rstString = <<<RST
+Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
+==========================
+
+Consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod
+tempor **incididunt ut** labore et dolore magna aliqua.
+
+* Ut enim ad minim veniam
+* Quis nostrud exercitation
+* Ullamco laboris nisi ut
+
+`Aliquip ex ea commodo <https://symfony.com>`_ consequat.
+Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate `velit esse`_.
+
+Cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur
+--------------------------------------
+
+Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in
+culpa qui *officia deserunt* mollit anim id est laborum.
+
+.. _`velit esse`: https://github.com
+RST;
+
+        $htmlString = <<<HTML
+<div class="section">
+<h1 id="lorem-ipsum-dolor-sit-amet"><a class="headerlink" href="#lorem-ipsum-dolor-sit-amet" title="Permalink to this headline">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet</a></h1>
+<p>Consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod
+tempor <strong>incididunt ut</strong> labore et dolore magna aliqua.</p>
+<ul>
+    <li>Ut enim ad minim veniam</li>
+<li>Quis nostrud exercitation</li>
+<li>Ullamco laboris nisi ut</li>
+</ul>
+<p><a href="https://symfony.com" class="reference external">Aliquip ex ea commodo</a> consequat.
+Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate <a href="https://github.com" class="reference external" rel="external noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">velit esse</a>.</p>
+<div class="section">
+<h2 id="cillum-dolore-eu-fugiat-nulla-pariatur"><a class="headerlink" href="#cillum-dolore-eu-fugiat-nulla-pariatur" title="Permalink to this headline">Cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur</a></h2>
+<p>Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in
+culpa qui <em>officia deserunt</em> mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+HTML;
+
+        $this->assertSame($htmlString, (new DocBuilder())->buildString($rstString)->getStringResult());
+    }
+
     private function createIndenter(): Indenter
     {
         $indenter = new Indenter();