The Red Hat

Outline of the Book

The book consists of 17 chapters including the prologue and epilogue. The prologue is short and mainly introduces the historical background of the writing of the novel and the historical background of the story.

Chapter One introduces the setting of one of the main plots of the story, an island country in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as the identity of the protagonist, John. Two main threads (as mentioned above) that would run through the book begin to loom in the first chapter.

Chapter Two is a flashback to the first day of John's career job after college. The key point of this chapter is to introduce how BMA tricks new employees who are ignorant of the mind-reading mechanism to sign an agreement contract to wear the machinery voluntarily as a cutting-edge BCI (brain-computer interface) apparatus for interacting with the corporate computer system, with the a penalty clause on the contract for breaking the agreement.

Chapter Three is about the gathering of John with his old classmates visiting him from another city. The scientifically fictitious feature of this chapter focuses on some absurd situations in society at that time due to the replacement of humans by robots.

Chapter Four continues the plot of Chapter Three with John’s scientifically fictitious encounters after he saw off his classmates at the train station, supplemented by a gathering in his company during which a rumor that might impact their future was spread.

Chapter Five is one of the most important parts of the novel, which not only introduces the mechanism of the mind-reading machinery and illustrates its effectiveness, but also lays out the relevant philosophy.

Chapter Six, while showing how the social pyramid uses traditional means to monitor people's movements, introduces another model for implementing the mind-reading machinery around the world: forcing prison inmates to wear them.

Chapter Seven takes the audience back to the scene of Chapter One. Two highlights for this chapter are: 1) For the so-called "useless people", their existence itself becomes a crime, so they are being forcibly removed from the civilized society; 2) The looming AH in Chapter One are becoming more visible, but John and his team still don't know the truth.

Chapter Eight is a chapter in which John, the protagonist of the novel, is shocked and disgusted when he finally learns the truth that BMA has replaced human beings with AH’s. This chapter briefly describes the basic characteristics of AH’s: they are produced in a workshop so that they do not need sexual reproduction, and they are already young adults when they leave the production line.

Chapter Nine is a chapter in which the meeting between John with another BMA member, the head of the island country, and also further complements the description of the mechanism of the mind-reading machinery. It is in this chapter that John, revolts against the BMA for the first time, thus setting the stage for his subsequent disposal by the BMA.

Chapter 10 is the story of how John was framed, kidnapped and then released back home. This event completely changes his life view and worldview, as well as his relationship with people around him. After he returned to his home country, he met with his childhood friend Bob, a private physician, to discuss how to deal with BMA.

Chapter 11 introduces another secret society that fights against the BMA, a righteous one, the BHA (Brilliant Human Association). John's childhood friend Jessica is one of its leaders. The development of their relationship brings the novel to another climax.

Chapter 12 introduces the head of BHA, George, and brings out another prop in the novel, the cloaking technology, which is used by BHA to combat BMA. In this chapter George tells the members of BHA in the sector of Jessica how the BMA uses the AH to intermarry unknowing humans so that they could effectively block the reproduction of normal people through the fake marriages with substantially sterile AH’s, in the same way as we eliminate some pests through the so-called sterile insect technique.

Chapter 13 is the preparation of both BHA and BMA before the decisive day of general conflict between them. It's a prelude to the coming storm.

Chapter 14 is a climax of the novel. BHA took to the streets to protest BMA around the world. BMA also uses their power to launch a full-scale crackdown on BHA, and brings in heavily armed AH’s from the island nation where they are producing them. John fell flat on his back after being shot by an AH soldier during the protest, blood spurting from his mouth into the air.

In Chapter 15, after being rescued and having recovered, John and his BHA comrade Peter, use the cloaking technology to start a daunting run off in order to escape the chase of BMA. They finally reunite with Jessica, who led other members of BHA to escape BMA when John was still in the coma due to his injury. John learns from Jessica that George has been arrested and also learns that BMA has an important motive for manufacturing the AH.

The Epilogue is not a quick coda, but another important chapter of the book. In this chapter, the love relationship between John and Jessica develops fruitfully; huge changes happen within both BHA and BMA after the big conflict in Chapter 15, especially after the deaths of the heads of both organizations, which force them to go back to shake hands with each other; AH’s succeed in a military coup on that island country, which triggers the all around revolt of AH’s against BMA worldwide; the robots sent by humans to Mars also successfully disarm humans on Mars and openly rebel against the earthlings. The whole book ends with the attack to Earth by robots in flying saucers from Mars.