[2] The manuscript is submitted by Neil Adam Armon to another author named Naomi Alderman for an early read; it includes historical research aimed at filling in missing details leading up to the Cataclysm,[3] in which one of the then-newly empowered females destroyed all modern technology.

[4] The inclusion of the author's name is a subtle nod to the audience, as if the novel they are reading is the intellectual property of Neil Adam Armon, stolen by Naomi Alderman.

Roxy kills the man she believes responsible for her mother's death, and heads to America to lay low, meeting Eve and agreeing with her message of empowerment.

Margot develops training camps for girls to use their powers, using approval of her proactive steps to respond to the crisis to launch a gubernatorial campaign.

As formerly-trafficked women in Moldova start paramilitary groups, Tatiana, the Moldovan president's wife, steps in to take over the country.

After a military coup, she forms a pro-woman country called Bessapara in the south, while a rebel army funded by disempowered men opposes her in the north.

Margot uses her senatorial influence and network of public-private girls training camps to develop soldiers to fight in Bessapara and other conflicts, while Roxy supplies the fighters with glitter.

Rather than be expelled from the country like other journalists, Tunde decides to strike out on his own, sending his research and documentation to a trusted colleague, Nina, for safekeeping.

Eve decides to continue the war, planning on embroiling the world in a devastating global conflict that will reset humanity back to the Stone Age, to rebuild under female hegemony; devastated by Jocelyn's injuries, Margot pushes the American president to back Bessapara, and the global cataclysm comes to pass.

As a bookend, the influential author responds to the young male writer, telling him the book is a strong effort but found some of the details—such as male-dominated armies—far-fetched, and believes a man-dominated society would be more gentle.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph in 2012, Alderman explained the influence of Atwood's work on her as a novelist before the mentorship as, "I'd been to an Orthodox Jewish primary school where every morning the boys said, 'Thank you God for not making me a woman.'

[9] The Washington Post reviewer Ron Charles praised the novel as "one of those essential feminist works that terrifies and illuminates, enrages and encourages".