Summary

Chapter 1

At the Port of Anarres, a ship from Urras waits to take a passenger. This is highly unusual and some Anarrians are at the wall to protest. A man is killed by a rock as he escorts the passenger onto the ship. The passenger, Shevek, is an Anarrian physicist who is traveling to Uras to share his views with fellow scientists. The journey is long, and made longer by the need to inoculate Shevek against the many diseases that exist on Urras, but do not exist on Anarres. Shevek is left disoriented by the medical treatment and the customs of the Urras people that are so different from his own. When he finally lands on Urras, Shevek is greeted like he is a superstar and taken to a party at the university where he will be teaching. The lack of female intellectuals...