The Handmaid's Tale, #2
The Testaments
by Margaret Atwood
Contents
23
Overview
The narrator awakens in Ada’s safe apartment and meets Elijah, who reveals that Melanie and Neil were not her biological parents. He explains she was born in Gilead, smuggled out as an infant, and widely hunted as Baby Nicole. The disclosure upends her identity and raises the stakes for her safety.
Summary
The narrator wakes in a Carnarvon bedroom, disoriented but steadier after the previous day’s trauma. She joins Ada in the living room, where Elijah—the man from SanctuCare—waits. After an awkward silence, Elijah begins with hard truths.
Elijah first states her birthday isn’t as she believed, then says Melanie and Neil were not her parents. The narrator resists, grieving and confused, while Ada—struggling with her own emotions—admits they had planned to tell her. Elijah explains Melanie and Neil were protecting her.
Pressed for answers about her “real” parents, Elijah says they are alive as far as he knows. He asks what she knows of Gilead, then reveals she was born there and was smuggled out as a baby with the help of her mother and Mayday, prompting a Gilead campaign to recover her.
Linking this history to public events, the narrator recalls Baby Nicole, a notorious figure she once studied. Elijah confirms the final revelation: she herself is Baby Nicole. The disclosure shatters her assumptions about family, age, and identity, and underscores the urgency and danger surrounding her.
Who Appears
- Unnamed girl (narrator) / Baby NicoleLearns Melanie and Neil weren’t her parents and discovers she is Baby Nicole, smuggled from Gilead.
- ElijahNeil’s friend; delivers the revelations about the narrator’s origins and identity as Baby Nicole.
- AdaProtector and handler; supports the narrator and confirms plans to reveal her true identity.