The President and Congress have been massacred, the government taken over by religious zealots. Population is decreasing because of war and infertility. Women have become second class citizens. Based on Genesis 30:1 – 3, where Rachel gives Jacob her maid to bear children, women are valued based only on their potential ability to bear children. This is Offred’s story of her time as a Handmaid, her recollections of her life before, and the odd relationships she forms in her small world. Like other of Atwood’s novels, this could be a warning of what could happen to us.