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The novel opens in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, in the years A.F., or After Ford. Ford is the God-surrogate that many citizens of the World State believe is also Freud, the controversial psychosexual psychologist. The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning is leading a tour group of young students around a lab. He explains the scientific process by which human beings are fertilized and custom-made, and shows them the Social Predestination room, where workers create the social castes. They pass onto the conditioning rooms, where they reinforce the caste divisions by sleep-teaching.

There are some short interludes between Mustapha Mond, Resident Controller of Europe, and the students; Lenina and her friend Fanny; and Bernard Marx and Henry Foster.

Lenina confirms with Bernard that she would like to go on a trip with him to The Savage Reservation. Following her departure, there is more bitterness on the part of Bernard concerning his own inferiority.

Lenina and Henry eat dinner, go on a soma-holiday, and see a concert of synthetic music. Later, they have sex. The next day is Bernard Marx's Solidarity Service Day. A group of men and women sing and take soma together, and it eventually turns into an "orgy-porgy".

Lenina and Bernard go on a date. He tries to show her the ocean, and to express some of his subversive views to her, but she cries. She convinces him to take soma, and they go back to his rooms and have sex. The next day, when Lenina asks him if he had fun, Bernard is pained at the way she seems to degrade herself.

He and Lenina go to The Savage Reservation. Lenina shudders at the unclean conditions. They meet John, The Savage. He tells his story to Bernard, and it turns out that he is the illegitimate son of the Director and Linda, a woman who disappeared twenty-five years ago. John tells Bernard his life story. He feels desperately unhappy and alone. Bernard identifies with John and invites him to return to London with them.

Bernard triumphantly presents Linda and John, the Director's lost woman and illegitimate son. The Director is laughed out of office. Bernard is the big man on campus.

Lenina is interested in The Savage, and so she takes him out, and much to her chagrin, they do not have sex.

The Savage refuses to appear at an assembly. This shatters Bernard's reputation. Lenina is absent-minded, thinking about the Savage. He tells her he loves her and she undresses. Disgusted by the sexual degradation of the society, he violently rejects her.

The Savage is in the Hospital for the Dying to visit his mother. He hears the low-caste workers and several children talking badly about her and has a violent reaction. Suddenly, Linda wakes, recognizes him, and dies. He attempts to destroy a large supply of soma, causing a riot, and the police take him away, along with Bernard and Helmholtz.

The three meet with Mustapha Mond. Mustapha Mond and the Savage speak of religion. Mond says that there is a choice between machinery, scientific medicine, and universal happiness-- or God.

The Savage flees, planning to become independent. He repents by whipping himself. One day a photographer makes a popular film about The Savage. The Savage becomes a celebrity. There is a huge riot which turns into an orgy. The next morning, reporters find that the Savage has hung himself.