The Republic of Gilead is a military regime based on fundamentalist Christian values. There's no place for freedom, for choice, for self determination. Women in particular have been stripped of all their rights and are divided into castes. The narrator and main character, Offred, is a Handmaid and her only function is to breed. This is a very good novel, and a pretty scary one, considering how the rights of women, particularly reproductive rights, are constantly under attack by the religious fundamentalists and right-wing politicians. The dystopian society depicted in this book is far too plausible, at least in some of its elements...