Pilgrims' project

In a tightly regulated future where marriage is no longer a personal choice but a state‑mandated contract, a man named Roger Bartlett finds himself at the Marriage Administration desk, filling out an application he never wanted to submit. The clerks, with their crisp Mayflower dresses and impersonal talk‑type machines, probe his life with clinical precision, matching him to a partner based on hidden, unconscious data. Bartlett’s own detachment—shaped by years of enforced celibacy—leaves him uncertain whether the spouse assigned will be a companion or a further entanglement in a system that treats love like a bureaucratic form.

The story unfolds amid the sterile corridors of the marriage bureau, where the ever‑watchful Marriage Enforcement Police linger like ominous sentinels. Their presence hints at a darker force steering the population toward uniformity, challenging the human spirit that still clings to individuality. As Bartlett navigates this maze of paperwork and surveillance, the narrative teases a clash between personal desire and a society bent on standardizing even the most intimate of relationships.