This is a story about a girl named Tris who lives in a society divided by five factions.
She helped to overthrow the Erudite faction who looked to control everyone; however, when
the Erudite were defeated, a woman named Evelyn took control and wanted the society to be
factionless.
After watching a video from a mysterious woman named Edith Prior, some within the newly established
factionless society want to keep the factions and explore the world outside of the city.
This group of rebels is called the Allegiant.
Tris and her friends, including her boyfriend, Tobias, are recruited by the Allegiant and
she is put in a group to escape the city, while the other members will stay behind and
fight Evelyn and her new government.
Because Caleb, Tris’ brother, sided with the Erudite, he is sentenced to be executed.
Tris asks Tobias to rescue him before they leave the city and so Caleb escapes prison
with Tobias’ help and they board the train to the fence.
At the fence, the group is met with resistance, but most of them make it past the armed guards.
The group starts walking away from the city and they encounter two people, one of whom
is Tobias’ old mentor who he thought had died.
The group is then led away after Tris is shown a picture of her mother.
Tris and the group are taken to the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, an organization created
by the United States to run experiments related to personalities and genes.
The Bureau monitors controlled cities as experiments in their research, of which Tris’ city,
Chicago, is a part of.
The purpose of the experiments are to fix the problems that the previous government
system created, which attempted to control people’s behavior with genetics.
The experiment failed and rebellion ensued.
David, the leader of the Bureau, explains their research and reveals that Tris’ mother
was actually an employee of the Bureau, but entered the city to help with the experiment.
Tris is then given her mother’s journal.
Her mother’s journal reveals her experience entering the city as a teenager and her choice
to stay with Tris’ father in the city.
Tris and Tobias meet Nita, a scientist at the Bureau, who explains the concept of two
different people in the country: genetically pure and genetically damaged.
Those who are Divergent are genetically pure and those who aren’t are genetically damaged.
Tobias takes this news to heart when he discovers that he is not, in fact, Divergent, and is
genetically damaged.
Nita invites Tobias to come with her to meet some people outside the Bureau who live off
the grid.
Tobias goes with her and they meet a group of rebels that plan on fighting the Bureau.
Nita claims that the government is unfairly blaming the genetically damaged people, when
there is no data to support the claim that genetically damaged people are inferior to
genetically pure people.
When they return to the Bureau in the morning, Tobias tells Tris about the rebel forces beyond
the Bureau, but Tris doesn’t trust Nita.
They confront Nita and she explains her plan to steal the memory serum so that the Bureau
can’t use it against anyone.
Tris and Tobias fight over trusting Nita and become angry with each other.
However, after Tris talks to another employee in the Bureau who is helping Nita, she learns
that Nita really wants to steal the death serum.
Nita and her group break into the Bureau and make their way to David, trying to force him
to open the doors to where the death serum is held.
He refuses and is given a mixture of truth and fear serum, but Tris rescues him before
he gives up the codes.
Those involved with the attack are placed in prison, while Tris and Tobias are released.
Meanwhile, the Allegiant begin fighting back against Evelyn and the factionless.
As the uprising continues, David believes that the experiment in the city will fail
unless they reset the memories of everyone in the city using a memory serum.
Instead, Tris wants to stop the Bureau by using the memory serum on the Bureau employees,
erasing the idea of genetically damaged individuals.
Tris and Caleb stay back at the Bureau and Tobias and the others enter the city.
Caleb volunteers to get the death serum, which will require him to get sprayed by the death
serum in the process.
However, Tris decides to sacrifice herself and survives the death serum defense mechanism.
She enters the room that has the death serum and finds David there to stop her.
She uses the memory serum on David, but David shoots her.
Tris dies.
Meanwhile, in the city, Tobias has one vial of memory serum that he wants to use on either
his father, Marcus, or mother, Evelyn, to stop the fighting.
He decides to talk to his mother and his mother chooses to stand down so that they can mend
their relationship.
Evelyn offers Marcus and the Allegiant forces a treaty, which they accept.
Those who want to live in factions are allowed to live in the city and those who want to
leave can leave.
Tobias is heartbroken when he finds out that Tris is dead.
He attempts to wipe out his memory with the memory serum, but is eventually talked out
of it.
In the end, Tobias spreads Tris’ ashes as he goes down a zipline in the city.