Lydia also recalls her past life as a judge, and her days in Gilead’s founding when she was arrested, tortured, and then co-opted into designing much of Gilead’s social structure, especially as it pertains to women. He does not suspect that the traitor is Lydia herself. She often meets with Commander Judd, one of Gilead’s most powerful officials, who is trying to uncover a secret traitor in their midst who is slowly leaking intel to an anti-Gilead resistance movement called Mayday. Lydia spends her time planning and counteracting Vidala’s schemes, often by blackmailing or coercing other powerful people. Her rival Aunt Vidala is constantly scheming against her, and Lydia needs to survive long enough to smuggle the information out of Gilead. For years she has been compiling damning information about Gilead’s leadership and she is preparing to release it to the world. However, she intends to take the entire country down with her when she dies. It interweaves narratives by Aunt Lydia, Agnes, and Nicole (who is initially known as Daisy).Īunt Lydia, the most powerful Aunt in Gilead and one of its architects, writes that she is nearing the end of her life, and already many want her dead.

The story takes place in Gilead, a “Puritan theocracy” established in place of the United States in the 21st Century, previously described in The Handmaid’s Tale.

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