The Man in the High Castle is set in an alternate dystopian future where the axis powers won the Second World War and took over the world, changing the course of history forever. In it the world is split between the Nazi empire and the Imperial Japanese empire. The Nazis control Europe, Africa, Arabia and small parts of the Americas, eradicating all ethnicities deemed ‘unfit’, manipulating puppet governments, draining the Mediterranean Sea to increase its land mass and even effectively taking over its old ally, the Italian empire. the IJE, on the other hand, controls most of the rest of the world but is not as harsh as its Nazi counterpart and is much more liberal. In between these two hulking empires is the last remnant of free USA, called the Rocky Mountain Buffer. Here, the citizens are told that if the allies had won, communism would have taken over the world, and - not knowing any better - they believe all of the propaganda they are fed.
The novel is written from the perspective of different characters situated in both Japanese and Nazi occupied America, during which the Fuhrer dies and a Nazi power struggle erupts. Many of the characters read from a fictional novel (within the novel) about what would have happened if the Allies had emerged victories in WW2 - the book is outright banned in the Nazi Empire but published in the more liberal IJE, as well as other remaining countries.
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