The Handmaid's Tale - A Complete Summary The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel written by Margaret Atwood. The story of the novel is set at the end of the 20th century, sometime after 1985. The story's premise is that a group of "evil" Christians took over the United States and renamed it the Republic of Gilead. Birth rates begin dropping steadily as women are stripped of all their former rights. The women are also divided into one of a few functions...