The Handmaid's Tale plot summary

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The narrator is imprisoned with several other women in a gym.

Then she's working at a Commander's house as a Handmaid. This is her third such assignment.

She leaves the house only to go shopping or to other ritual events. She thinks frequently about the woman who was the Handmaid before her, who killed herself.

Throughout the book, the narrator has frequent flashbacks.

In the first series of flashbacks, she remembers her life with her husband, Luke, and their daughter. She works at a library. When the government collapses, she loses her job and control over money.

The narrator and Luke try to set up fake papers and cross the border. They almost make it but are captured at the last minute. The narrator doesn't know what happened to Luke or her daughter.

In the second series of flashbacks, the narrator remembers the Women's Center, where she was held at the beginning of the book. Here the women are brainwashed, indoctrinated into being Handmaids and forgetting their old lives. The narrator is momentarily relieved when her friend Moira comes to the Center. Moira eventually escapes.

In between these flashbacks, the narrator struggles with the present.

She is forced to have sex regularly with the Commander with his Wife present.