This paper presents the dynamics and bifurcations of a semiconductor laser subject to instantaneous phaseconjugate feedback. Recently, the behavior of such a laser has been explored by means of bifurcation diagrams. However, the exact nature of the involved dynamics and bifurcations remained unclear. Here we present a detailed study of the changes of the dynamics as the feedback strength is varied. Most prominent are symmetry-breaking and-restoring bifurcations, tori and their bifurcations, and a sudden transition between chaos and a stable limit cycle due to a saddle-node bifurcation of limit cycles. ͓S1063-651X͑98͒01812-1͔