The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Harpman, Jacqueline. I Who Have Never Known Men. Penguin Random House UK, 2019.

Jacqueline Harpman's novel I Who Have Never Known Men is a work of speculative fiction. Set in an unidentified dystopian universe, the narrative world remains mysterious to the first person narrator and protagonist throughout. Therefore, because the unnamed narrator is unable to explain the reasons for her circumstances, she cannot relay them to the reader. The narrator is also writing from a retrospective angle. For this reason, she employs both the past and present tenses. The following summary adheres to a more linear mode of explanation and relies upon the present tense.

When the narrator is a child, she is ripped from her home and family and imprisoned in a cage underground with 39 other women. Because she is so young, the other women guess she was grouped with them by mistake. In the cage, the women have no understanding of why they are being held captive. They are constantly watched by a set of perpetually rotating guards. Although they are fed, allowed to wash and converse, and given mattresses to sleep on, they have no other comforts or freedoms.

When the narrator is roughly 15 or 16 years old, she begins to realize that the other women know things that she does not. Indeed, they are often talking and laughing amongst themselves. However, whenever she approaches, they stop their chatter. When she asks questions, they dismiss her and refuse to relay their stories to her.

In an effort to have a secret of her own, the narrator begins inventing stories for herself. These private fantasies grant her sexual pleasure. However, because she knows nothing about men, about sex, or even about her own body, she does not know how to name what she is feeling.

One day, the narrator befriends Anthea. Over the course of the weeks that follow, the two foster a kinship. Anthea is kind to the narrator and humors her questions and ideas.

Not long later, an alarm goes off at the very moment one of the guards is unlocking the cage to feed the women. At the sound of the alarm, the guards flee. Once they are gone, the narrator retrieves the key and frees the women.

Although the other women are convinced that the guards will return, the narrator is unafraid. She is thrilled to have escaped the cage and bunker. Indeed, the women have been delivered into the world above.

Over the course of the following weeks, the women begin to wander the desolate, indistinguishable landscape where they find themselves. When they start discovering other bunkers like the one where they were held, they hope they will find an unlocked cage. However, each bunker holds the same horror: a locked cage filled with the mummified bodies of both women and men.

The women eventually decide to settle down. They create a small village for themselves by a river. Although most of the women are happy, the narrator is restless. She wants to explore and discover.

After all the last of her companions die, the narrator finds herself completely alone. Initially this solitude feels liberating. Over time, however, she grows increasingly despairing. She particularly misses Anthea, realizing that what they shared was love. The narrator repeatedly delivers herself from despair by reinvigorating her search for meaning and understanding. However, no matter where she goes and how long she searches, she finds no explanation to what happened to her.

When she falls ill, the narrator decides that she will pen her account. Having found a bunker designed for comfort and enjoyment rather than torture, she settles in for her final days. She writes her story in the hopes that someone someday will find it and remember her.