“使女们穿的衣服都是红色的:血的颜色，它定义了我们。”奥弗莱德是基列共和国的使女，在那里女性被禁止从事工作、读书和交朋友。在新的社会秩序下，她只有一个目的:每月一次，她必须仰面躺着，祈祷指挥官让她怀孕，因为在出生率下降的时代，奥弗莱德和其他使女只有在能生育的时候才有价值。但奥弗雷德记得在吉利德之前的那些年，那时她是一个独立的女人，有工作，有家庭，有自己的名字。她的记忆和求生意志都是反抗的表现。
"Everything Handmaids wear is red: the colour of blood, which defines us." Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, where women are prohibited from holding jobs, reading, and forming friendships. She serves in the household of the Commander and his wife, and under the new social order she has only one purpose: once a month, she must lie on her back and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, ecause in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if they are fertile. But Offred remembers the years before Gilead, when she was an independent woman who had a job, a family, and a name of her own. Now, her memories and her will to survive are acts of rebellion.
