The novel is set twenty years in the future, in a Britain where class differences are enforced by violent military law. The country is partitioned into districts by "wires," or fences, patrolled by the futuristic military police, the Paramils. The officers monitor not only where people are, but what they think, by means of a mind-reading "psycho-radar" transmitted from helicopters, or "psycho-copters." The lowest class, the Unnems, are segregated to the urban slums of the big cities like London and Glasgow. Here there are few police and no laws; the only opportunities for survival are careers, or "futuretracks," such as crime or brief media celebrity. The suburban class, the Ests, live in nice houses and go to college. But the Ests suffer from overpopulation, so their children must take E-level exams to guarantee their class status for life. If they fail the exams, they are banished "across the...