The state maintains a eugenic breeding program and commands its common citizens when to have children.

A young Chinese traveler named Ming Yuen-hwuy enters Meccania for a five-month stay.

Ming's diary and notes describe his dreary and dehumanizing sojourn in a country where the militaristic government dominates social life.

Meccania, a place of "perpetual propaganda...," presents the visitor with "an odd mixture of arrogance, xenophobia, over-punctiliousness, over-organization, chauvinism, and rigidity...."[3] Ming is constantly observed by official guides.

Ming also learns the history of Meccania — how "Bludiron" (Otto von Bismarck) organized the nation to resist the socialism of "Spotts" (a pun on the surname of Karl Marx).