THE HANDMAID'S TALE is the story of the dystopian Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly part of the U.S. Facing a plunging birthrate, Gilead is ruled by a fundamentalism regime that treats women as property. As one of the few remaining fertile women, Offred is a Handmaid, one of the caste of women forced into sexual servitude as an attempt to repopulate a devastated world. Offred navigates between Commanders, their wives, domestic Marthas, and her fellow Handmaids.