Offred is pregnant and fighting to free her future child from the dystopian horrors of Gilead. Aunt Lydia is fond of saying "Gilead is within you" -- and the characters will fight against or succumb to this dark truth.

A religion-based autocracy has taken over most of the United States, renaming the country Gilead. In this country, women are second-class citizens. One such person is June, who is captured while trying to escape with her husband and child and is sentenced to be a handmaid, bearing children for childless government officials. As a handmaid, June is renamed Offred. This is her story.

From the Publisher: In this multi-award-winning, bestselling novel, Margaret Atwood has created a stunning Orwellian vision of the near future. This is the story of Offred, one of the unfortunate "Handmaids" under the new social order who have only one purpose: to breed. In Gilead, where women are prohibited from holding jobs, reading, and forming friendships, Offred's persistent memories of life in the "time before" and her will to survive are acts...

"Examines the history and evolution of theocracy as a political system"--

"The Purge is here. New Orleans must die. Long after the destruction of all electronic technology, the Bright Crusade rules the world as a fundamentalist Christian theocracy. Gabriel Troy is Lord of Order for the New Orleans Principality. For years, he and his deputies have fought to keep their city safe from the attacks of the Crusade's relentless enemies, the Troublers - heretical guerillas who reject the Crusade's rule and the church's strict doctrines....