Looked at from one side, the wall enclosed a barren sixty-acre field called the Port of Anarres. What was inside it and what was outside it depended upon which side of it you were on. Like all walls it was ambiguous, two-faced. For seven generations there had been nothing in the world more important than that wall. Where it crossed the roadway, instead of having a gate it degenerated into mere geometry, a line, an, idea of boundary. An adult could look right over it, and even a child could climb, it. It was built of uncut rocks roughly mortared. Shevek must make the unprecedented journey to the utopian mother planet, Urras, to challenge the complex structures of life and living, and ignite the fires of change.

To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action.

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