Far future. D-503, a talented engineer, builder of the Integral spacecraft, keeps notes for posterity, tells them about the “highest peaks in human history” - the life of the One State and its head Benefactor. The name of the manuscript is "We." D-503 admires that the citizens of the United State, numbering, lead a life calculated according to the Taylor system, strictly regulated by the Hourly Tablet: at the same time they get up, start and finish work, go for a walk, go to the audience, go to bed. For numbers, they determine the appropriate timesheet for sexual days and issue a pink coupon book. D-503 is certain: ““ We ”are from God, and“ I ”is from the devil.”

One spring day with his sweet, round-turned girlfriend recorded on it 0–90, the D-503, along with other equally dressed numbers, walks under the march of the pipes of the Music Plant. A stranger talks to him with very white and sharp teeth, with some kind of annoying X in his eyes or eyebrows. I-330, thin, sharp, stubbornly flexible, like a whip, reads the thoughts of D-503.

A few days later I-330 invites D-503 to the Ancient House (they fly there by aero). In the apartment-museum there is a piano, a chaos of colors and shapes, a statue of Pushkin. D-503 captured in the wild whirlwind of ancient life. But when I-330 asks him to violate the accepted daily routine and stay with her, D-503 intends to go to the Guardian Bureau and inform her. However, the next day he goes to the Medical Bureau: it seems to him that irrational No. 1 has grown into him and that he is clearly ill. He is freed from work.

D-503, along with other numbers, is present in Cuba during the execution of a poet who wrote blasphemous verses about the Benefactor. A poetized verdict is read in shaky gray lips by a friend of D-503, State Poet R-13. The benefactor himself executes the criminal, heavy, stone, as fate. The sharp edge of the beam of his Machine sparkles, and instead of the number, there is a pool of chemically pure water.

Soon, the builder of Integral receives a notice that I-330 signed up for it. D-503 is at her appointed hour. I-330 teases him: he smokes the ancient "cigarettes", drinks liquor, and forces the D-503 to take a sip in a kiss. The use of these poisons in the United State is prohibited, and D-503 must report this, but cannot. Now he is different. In the tenth entry, he admits that he is dying and can no longer fulfill his duties to the United State, and in the eleventh - that he now has two “I” - he and the old one, innocent like Adam, and the new one - wild, loving and jealous, just like in idiotic ancient books. If you knew which of these "I" is real!

D-503 cannot do without I-330, but it is nowhere to be found. In the Medical Bureau, where the double-curved Guardian S-4711, friend I, helps him to get there, it turns out that the builder of Integral is terminally ill: he, like some other numbers, had a soul.

D-503 comes to the Ancient House, in “their” apartment, opens the cabinet door, and suddenly ... the floor goes under his feet, he falls into some kind of dungeon, reaches the door, behind which is a rumble. From there appears his friend, the doctor. “I thought she was, I-330 ...” - “Stand here!” - the doctor disappears. Finally! Finally she is near. D and I go away - two or one ... She goes, like him, with his eyes closed, his head bent up, his lips bent ... The builder of Integral is now in a new world: there is something clumsy, shaggy, irrational around.

0–90 understands: D-503 loves another, so she removes her record on him. Coming to say goodbye to him, she asks: "I want - I have to have a child from you - and I will leave, I will leave!" - "What? Wanted Benefactor Machines? You are ten centimeters lower than the Maternal Norm! ” - "Let be! But I will feel it in myself. And even for a few days ... "How can I refuse her? .. And the D-503 fulfills her request - as if rushing down from the battery tower.

I-330 finally appears at his beloved. "Why did you torment me, why didn't you come?" - “Maybe I needed to test you, I need to know that you will do everything I want, that you are already completely mine?” “Yes, absolutely!” Sweet, sharp teeth; a smile, she is in a cup of a chair - like a bee: there is a sting and honey in it. And then - the bees - lips, the sweet pain of flowering, the pain of love ... "I can’t do this, I. You always say something unreasonably," "Aren't you afraid to follow me everywhere?" - “No, I'm not afraid!” “Then, after Unanimity Day, you will know everything, unless ...”

The great Day of Unanimity is coming, something like ancient Easter, as D-503 writes; the annual election of the Benefactor, the triumph of the will of the one "We." Cast-iron, slow voice: "Who is" for "- please raise your hands." The rustling of millions of hands, with an effort raises his and D-503. “Who is against?” Thousands of hands shot up, and among them - the hand of I-330. And then there’s a whirlwind of run-up robes, the confused figures of the Guardians, R-13, blowing I-330 in his arms. Like a battering ram, D-503 steams through the crowd, snatches I, all covered in blood, near R-13, holds it tightly and carries it away. If only to carry it this way, carry it, carry it ...

And the next day in the Unified State Newspaper: "For the 48th time, the same Benefactor was unanimously elected." And in the city, sheets with the inscription “Mephi” are glued everywhere.

D-503 with I-330 along the corridors under the Ancient House leave the city beyond the Green Wall, into the lower world. Intolerantly colorful din, whistle, light. D-503 has a head spinning. D-503 sees wild people, overgrown with wool, cheerful, cheerful. I-330 introduces them to the builder of Integral and says that it will help to capture the ship, and then it will be possible to destroy the Wall between the city and the wild world. And on the stone are the huge letters "Mephi." D-503 is clear: wild people are half that the townspeople have lost, some are H2, and others are O, and in order to get H2O, you need half to connect.

I appoints D a date in the Ancient House and reveals to him the Mephi plan: to capture Integral during a test flight and, making him a weapon against the United State, finish everything at once, quickly, without pain. “What an absurdity, I! After all, our revolution was the last! ” - “The last - no, the revolutions are endless, and otherwise - entropy, blissful peace, balance. But it is necessary to break it for the sake of endless movement. " D-503 cannot give out the conspirators, because among them ... But suddenly he thinks: what if she is with him only because ...

The next morning, a decree on the Great Operation appears in the State Newspaper. The goal is the destruction of fantasy. Operations must undergo all numbers in order to become perfect, machine-like. Maybe do surgery D and recover from the soul, from I? But he cannot live without her. He does not want salvation ...

On the corner, in the auditorium, the door is wide open, and from there - a slow column of operated ones. Now these are not people, but some humanoid tractors. They plow through the crowd irresistibly and suddenly envelop her in a ring. Someone piercing scream:

“Drive, run!” And everyone runs away. D-503 runs into a porch for a break, and immediately there is 0–90. She also does not want surgery and asks to save her and their unborn child. D-503 gives her a note to I-330: she will help.

And here is the long-awaited flight of Integral. Among the numbers on the ship are members of Mephi. “Up - 45!” - commands the D-503. A deaf explosion - a push, then an instant curtain of clouds - a ship through it. And the sun, the blue sky. In the radiotelephone D-503 finds I-330 - in an auditory winged helmet, sparkling, volatile, like the ancient Valkyries. “Last night she comes to me with your note,” she says to D. “And I sent it — she is already there, behind the Wall.” She will live ... "Lunch. Everything is in the dining room. And suddenly someone says: “On behalf of the Guardians ... We know everything. To you - to whom I say, they hear ... The test will be brought to the end, you will not dare to break it. And then ... ”I have frantic, blue sparks. In the ear D: “Ah, is that you? Are you “fulfilling a duty”? ” And he suddenly realizes with horror: this is the duty officer Yu, who has repeatedly been in his room, she read his notes. The builder of Integral is in the command room. He firmly orders: “Down! Stop the engines. The end of everything. ” Clouds - and then a distant green spot swirls into a ship in a whirlwind. The warped face of the Second Builder. He pushes the D-503 from all over, and he, already falling, hesitantly hears: "Stern - full speed!" A sharp jump up.

The D-503 calls the Benefactor to him and tells him that now the ancient dream of paradise is coming true - a place where they are blessed with operated imagination, and that the conspirators were needed only as a builder of Integral. "We do not know their names yet, but I am sure we will learn from you."

The next day, it turns out that the Wall is blown up and flocks of birds fly in the city. On the streets - rebels. Swallowing a storm of open mouths, they move west. Through the glass walls you can see: female and male numbers copulate, not even lowering the curtains, without any coupons ...

D-503 runs to the Guardian Bureau and tells S-4711 everything he knows about Mephi. He, like ancient Abraham, sacrifices Isaac - himself. And suddenly the builder of Integral becomes clear: S is one of those ...

The D-503 rash - from the Bureau of the Keepers and - to one of the public restrooms. There, his neighbor, occupying a seat on the left, shares his discovery with him: “There is no infinity! Everything is of course, everything is simple, everything is computable; and then we will win philosophically ... "-" And where is your finite universe ending? What is next? ” The neighbor does not have time to reply. D-503 and all who were there are captured and in the audience 112 are subjected to the Great Operation. The head of the D-503 is now empty, easy ...

The next day, he comes to the Benefactor and tells everything that he knows about the enemies of happiness. And here he is at the same table with the Benefactor in the famous Gas Room. Bring that woman. She must give her testimony, but she is only silent and smiling. Then it is introduced under the bell. When air is pumped out from under the bell, she throws her head back, her eyes are half closed, her lips are clenched - it reminds D-503 of something. She looks at him, clinging tightly to the arms of the chair, looking until her eyes completely close. Then they pull it out, with the help of electrodes they quickly bring themselves to life and again they plant it under the bell. This is repeated three times - and yet she does not say a word. Tomorrow she and the others, brought with her, will ascend the steps of the Machine of the Benefactor.

D-503 thus concludes its notes: “A temporary wall of high-voltage waves was constructed in the city. I'm sure we will win. Because the mind must win. "