The novel begins in the narrator’s office. The narrator, a professor named Burris is visited by two men named Rogers and Steve who just returned from serving in the war. The two men were interested in finding more information about a utopian society the Professor once talked about during his classes. Burris tells the men that he was inspired by the ideas of a writer named Frazier and when he discovers that Frazier was still alive and living in a community called Waldo Two, he promised the boys to send him a letter.
They receive and answer only three days later and Frazier invites the men and any other people who may be interested in finding about his community to visit him. Burris invites a philosophy professor named Augustine Castle to go with them and Rogers and Steve decide to bring their girlfriends along as well. The group decided to leave on Wednesday and they travel by train. Then, they take a bus and they meet with Frazier who takes them to Walden Two.
After letting them rest, Frazier comes once more to take the guests on a tour around the community. The guests find that everything is shared in the community and that the buildings belong to everyone and have multiple purposes.
In one of the buildings, they meet with Mrs. Meyerson, the person in charge of making the women’s clothes in the community. Frazier also presents them the glasses they used for tea, tall glasses that had the purpose of reducing to the minimum the spilling sometimes accrued.
The men notice that every woman in the community is well-dressed and attractive and Frazier argues that the reason why the women all seem attractive is because they have more free time to focus on their appearance and that they do not feel compelled to follow a certain fashion trend. This is in the women’s advantage since they can wear what suits them, not what fashion dictates. The men are not as well-dressed as the woman and Frazier claims that they are still trying to achieve equality in that department.
The children are also well-dressed and mannered and they have to follow their own set of rules. For example, until the age of seven, the children eat in a separate place from the rest of the adults. Then, when they reach the appropriate age, the have a ceremony and are allowed to eat with rest of the adults. The visitors witness such a ceremony, for a girl named Deborah, Mrs. Meyerson’s daughter.
At dinner, the visitors are able to see that there are no crowds in Walden Two despite the fact that a large number of people live in the community. Frazier explains that it is more beneficial for the community to avoid large crowds and special measures have been taken to make sure that no crowds will form.
The cafeteria where the members eat is a beautiful building and the décor was made in such a way as to create the impression that a person was in a different place and country. The dishes were washed by only two people and because of various inventions, the process was optimized to take as little time as possible.
In Walden, no one is paid for the job they did and instead they receive labor credits. The people are free to choose the job they want to do but they cannot choose to be doctors for example because that requires training. The less pleasant jobs are paid more than the normal jobs and thus the community encourages more people to try and work in those departments. The members of the community work for only four hours per day and the guests are informed that they are required to work for two hours per day as well.
The next day, the visitors choose to work by cleaning the windows of the main building and they spend their morning working.
The community tries to be self-sufficient and when they need products they are unable to produce themselves they trade some of their own products in exchange for what they need. Because they have so much free time, the people in the community develop their artistic abilities and spend more time learning new things.
The visitors are then showed the nursery, a place where the children are kept in heated glass boxes, without any clothes. The bigger children are also kept separate from their parents and taken care of by the community. They take part in various activities such as hiking and because every action is carefully planned the children do not feel jealous of one another. Also, negative emotions such as jealousy have been eliminated completely through behavioral engineering.
Frazier explains that they train children to be able to control themselves by putting food or sweets in front of them and not letting them consume the foods and drinks given. Castle feels outraged by the manner in which the children are treated but Frazier claims that such measures are necessary to teach the children to better control themselves.
The children are allowed to move into the quarters reserved for adults at the age of 13. The children are allowed to study what they want and because of this they do not need to be conditioned to fear education like the children in traditional communities. Most people in the community begin their sexual life early, in their teenage years, and they also have children really early. This, argues Frazier, leaves the parents time to focus on their career in their adulthood and also helps them develop better since they do not have to try and hide their sexual desires like the people in the rest of the communities are told to do. Frazier also points out that they try to discourage some couples considered unfit from having babies.
Spouses more than often chose to sleep in separate rooms as it was proven that those who slept separately were happier than those who shared a room. Their children are taken from them after birth and this also helps to ease the burden of raising a child alone.
In chapter 17, the visitors talk about their opinion about Walden and while some are excited about the community, others such as Barbara are anxious to leave. Some of the methods used in Walden are considered by some as being unethical but they can’t deny their efficacy. Despite this, Steve and Mary express their desire to join the community and thus they are interviewed for this purpose. In the group, Castle is the character who is most reluctant to accept the community and the ideas promoted.
Castle criticizes the community for keeping itself separated from the outside world and for not trying to fix the current problems but Burris points out that the community is highly functional and appears to be happy.
Religion and propaganda have been eliminated from the community completely and the children are taught the consequences of various actions to keep them from behaving in an undesirable manner. Burris decides to investigate the community on his own but he does not find anything out of place or strange.
Frazier tells the visitors that they have expanded the community and to that date there were another six communities. They were trying however to avoid being publicly acknowledge, fearing that more people will want to join then and that they will not have enough time to integrate them. It also becomes clear that while Frazier was the founder of the community, he was not seen as a person of great importance: he had no greater power or influence and he had to work just like any other person in the community. Frazier also admits that while he was the founder, he does not feel as he is a member of the community because he was too influenced by the outside world and was never able to fully give up his desire to own material things or his own ambitions. Frazier also asks Burris if he is interested in joining the community but he admits that he is not convinced yet.
Castle sees Frazier as a tyrant who tries to control the members of the community but Frazier claims that his approach is necessary for the greater good of the community. He also argues that humans have always been controlled by various elements such as religion and the government and thus it is impossible to eliminate any type of control completely from society. Frazier is against every type of government, be it communist or democratic, claiming that it is not good enough.
Burris remains undecided on whether to join the community or not, thinking that the ties he has with the outside world are just too important. Frazier takes the visitors who decided to return to the outside world to the train station but when Burris reached the city, he realized that he wants to return to Walden. Thus, he packs his bags once more and returns to the community. At Walden, he was welcomed by Steve who told him that his return was predicted by Frazier who was sure Burris will return.
