<P> Luke was Offred's husband prior to the formation of Gilead . He had divorced his first wife to marry her . Under Gilead, all divorces were retroactively nullified, resulting in Offred being considered an adulteress and their daughter a bastard . Offred was forced to become a Handmaid and her daughter was given to a loyalist family . Since their attempt to escape to Canada, Offred has heard nothing of Luke . Later in the television series, it is revealed that Luke is still alive . </P> <P> Pieixoto is the "co-discoverer (with Professor Knotly Wade) of Offred's tapes". In his presentation at an academic conference, he talks about "the' Problems of Authentication in Reference to The Handmaid's Tale"'. Pieixoto is therefore the person who is retelling Offred's story, and so makes the narration even more unreliable than it was originally . </P> <P> The novel is set in an indeterminate future, speculated to be around the year 2005, with a fundamentalist theonomy ruling the territory of what had been the United States but is now the Republic of Gilead . Individuals are segregated by categories and dressed according to their social functions . The complex sumptuary laws (dress codes) play a key role in imposing social control within the new society and serve to distinguish people by sex, occupation, and caste . </P> <P> The action takes place in what once was the Harvard Square neighbourhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts; Atwood studied at Radcliffe College, located in this area . </P>

What year does the handmaid's tale take place