A religion-based autocracy has taken over most of the United States, renaming the country Gilead. In this country women are second-class citizens. Anyone trying to escape is punished. 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.

The Wife Project is complete, and Don and Rosie are happily married and living in New York. But they're about to face a new challenge because -- surprise! -- Rosie is pregnant. Don sets about learning the protocols of becoming a father, but his unusual research style gets him into trouble with the law. Fortunately his best friend Gene is on hand to offer advice: he's left Claudia and moved in with Don and Rosie. As Don tries to schedule time for pregnancy...

"Set in Florida in the 1970s, Grady Hendrix's newest novel follows five young women in a home for unwed mothers who find a guide to witchcraft"-- Provided by publisher. "They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they're sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget...

"At four months old, Olivia Dahl was almost murdered. Driven by haunting visions, her mother became obsessed with the idea that Olivia was a changeling, and that the only way to get her real baby back was to make a trade with the "dead women" living at the bottom of the well. Now Olivia is ready to give birth to a daughter of her own ... and for the first time, she hears the women whispering. Everyone tells Olivia she should be happy. She should be...

"A groundbreaking investigation of the uterus--from birth to death, in sickness and in health, throughout history and into our possible future--from a midwife and acclaimed writer Leah Hazard."--Inside front jacket flap