As in the first novel, men and women are divided by gender, function, and caste, and girls are given little education. It picks up more than a decade after The Handmaid's Tale ends, and takes readers back inside the Republic of Gilead, the oppressive society that the former United States of America has become. THE TESTAMENTS is author Margaret Atwood's sequel to her bestselling novel The Handmaid's Tale. The disturbing nature of The Testaments lies in the oppressive, corrupt world that Atwood creates. Strong language is frequent ('f-k' and 's-t'), and there are mentions people drinking and dealing and using drugs, but none of those behaviors is presented graphically. The threat of violence is always present for Atwood's characters, as girls are raised to fear being raped if they reveal any part of themselves to a man. Violence includes a car bombing, a gorey Caesarian section, and the sexual molestation of a young woman by her dentist, which is graphically described. Anyone whose behavior breaks Gilead's strict rules of conduct may be shot, hung, or subject to a Particicution, in which the offender is literally torn apart. In the novel, women and girls wear garments that reflect their roles, and they are forbidden from 'enticing' men.

A girl's education is extremely limited, and her future is determined by the status of her parents. Like The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments mainly takes place in the fictional Republic of Gilead (formerly the United States of America), where roles for women and men are strictly prescribed, and divided by gender and caste.

The Testaments picks up more than a decade after the end of The Handmaid's Tale, and answers some of the questions the reader was left with at the end of the original novel. Parents need to know that Margaret Atwood's The Testaments is the sequel to her bestselling dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale, which was also adapted for the 1990 film and the Hulu television series of the same name.

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