As an eight-year-old, he is uncannily bright and still decisively impetuous, and his teacher at the learning center accuses Shevek of “egoizing” as he attempts to explain a complicated math problem to his fellow students. The narrative flashes forward a few years to Shevek’s school days. Shevek’s father Palat has come to collect Shevek from the nursery in order to say goodbye to his mother, Rulag, who has been posted to a work assignment far away-Anarresti society functions in groups of Syndicates, and labor rotation often splits up family units or forces people to make large moves at a moment’s notice.
Everything on Anarres belongs to everyone. As an infant, Shevek plays with other children in an Anarresti communal nursery, unable to grasp that nothing-no toys, no objects-belong to him. The novel transitions back and forth in alternating chapters between the “present”-Shevek’s journey to Urras-and the story of his past on Anarres. In a flashback, the narrative transitions to the Anarres of Shevek’s youth. After the party, Shevek’s escorts bring him to his room at the university and help him to settle in. At the University, Shevek meets with University officials and diplomats of the state of A-Io alike, and the Ioti President makes a toast to “a new era of brotherhood” between the Twin Planets. His handlers-a group of five men-point out the sights to Shevek as the countryside flies by. A limousine arrives to take Shevek to the capital city of Nio Esseia, where he will be staying at the Ieu Eun University. He is met by reporters and paparazzi who photograph him and shout at him-he is “The First Man From the Moon” to them. Kimoe, Shevek prepares himself for landing on the capitalist, deeply socially-stratified world of Urras.
In the days that follow, Shevek runs a high fever as a side effect of the various vaccines, and when he awakes, he finds that he is halfway to Urras-the Moon, twin, and rival planet of his home planet, Anarres. Onboard the ship-a freighter called the Mindful-the passenger, a man named Shevek, is taken to his cabin and injected with several vaccines by a Urrasti doctor named Kimoe. The passenger makes it on board and the ship doors close, and within a few minutes the angry mob disperses. Members of the Anarresti Defense syndicate flank the man and hurry him to the ship as protestors begin throwing rocks, clipping the man’s shoulder and killing a Defense syndic. As a man crosses the wall and walks through the barren field toward the ship, the protestors recognize him and begin to chase him. A group of protestors gathers at the wall that surrounds the Port of Anarres as a spaceship docked there prepares for liftoff.
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