Set in the 26^th Century A.D., Zamyatin's tale is a portrait of life in 'OneState', a totalitarian society in which machine-like 'humans' are identically-dressed, referred to as 'Numbers' and subject to the Table of Hours, a regimented life-schedule that organizes almost every hour of each Number's day.

The writing style is both mathematical and poetic. The story unfolds through a series of short journal entries of Number D-503, an engineer and builder of the INTEGRAL, a glass spaceship that OneState hopes to launch into space to discover (and ideally assimilate) other societies. Since the journal entries are short, the pace of the story moves along quite well. Yet at times, it can be difficult to follow due to D-503's inability to completely form his thoughts, emphasized through erratic entries and unfinished sentences. Though potentially frustrating for readers, this approach provides authenticity to the diary-style method of storytelling.

D-503 keeps a diary as required by OneState, to let future readers know what life is like in a perfect society. What initially starts out as his praise of and devotion to OneState, slowly morphs into confused entries as his psychological state starts to unravel, prompted by his interaction with I-330, the leader of an anti-state revolutionary group called MEPHI. D-503's association with I-330 causes him to think critically about the reality of OneState and in effect he begins to disobey state rules and succumb to I-330's dogma.

D-503's epiphany can also be linked to his diary. This raises an interesting point regarding writing and its relationship to truth or a more genuine understanding of reality. The more D-503 writes, the more he is able to formulate ideas and critically evaluate OneState. Winston Smith in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four undergoes a similar process of discovery through the written word, emphasizing the importance of writing for the development of knowledge.

The OneState system in We is based on F.W. Taylor's Efficiency Movement, an early 20^th Century method developed to improve efficiency in American industrial production. Similar to Taylorism, the goal in OneState is to eliminate waste, with a focus on research, scientific management and problem-solving by experts. Zamyatin takes these principles and pushes them to their logical extreme. The result is an almost completely mechanized human in a clockwork-like workplace.

Zamyatin's We was also influenced by H.G. Wells' A Modern Utopia, which suggests the possibility of an ideal society based on technological advancement. Zamyatin takes this idea and flips it around, illustrating the dangers of a society which emphasizes science over human nature, eradicating as much of the human element as possible.

Although widely described as a dystopian tale, We is not quite a dystopia in the traditional sense. Life in OneState involves the suppression of human rights, yet there is no war, poverty, violence or pervasive unhappiness. It's quite the opposite. Numbers in OneState lead happy, productive lives. This raises one of the novel's central questions: 'can freedom and happiness easily coexist?'

Yet, it is unclear exactly how free D-503 really is—or possibly could be—after such severe thought-conditioning. Instead of thinking for himself, there is much evidence to suggest that D-503 has simply shifted his devotion from the Benefactor to I-330. These two characters are perfect antagonists to D-503, and they possess many similar character traits. Just as the Benefactor may be seen as taking advantage of the Numbers, so it remains unclear if I-330 actually has genuine feeling for D-503 or is simply using him for his access to the INTEGRATOR.