"The Handmaid's Tale" is a dramatic American show based on the eponymous book. The series is set in an alternative future where religious fanatics have seized power in the United States and several other countries. This occurs against the backdrop of declining birth rates worldwide and a decrease in the number of fertile women. The new state is called Gilead. The government of Gilead tightly controls all its inhabitants: their movements are strictly limited, art and other forms of public activity are prohibited, and they can only go outside with special passes. All fertile women in Gilead have been turned into handmaids, serving as surrogate mothers for infertile high-ranking officers' wives. The main character of the series, June Osborne, becomes one of these handmaids. Her husband manages to escape to the neighboring free Canada before the borders are closed, and their young daughter ends up in the hands of strangers. June herself desperately tries to reclaim her child and escape from Commander Fred, to whom she has been subjected to sexual slavery. Along the way, the heroine befriends other handmaids and reminisces about how her familiar world was destroyed in a matter of days.