The Circle

The story is narrated in the third person and follows 24-year-old Mae Holland. Mae arrives for her first day of work at The Circle, “the most influential company in the world” (1). She is amazed by the enormity and modernity of the campus, which is situated on the West Coast near San Francisco, California. In front of the complex’s main door, Mae pauses to relish the moment. Inside, over 10,000 employees are working for the company that “has been voted the world’s most admired [for] four years running” (2).

Mae got the job through her friend Annie, who was her roommate in college. Annie is a higher-up at The Circle and a close confidante for Mae. While Mae waits to meet with Annie, Renata, another employee, offers to walk Mae to her desk. Mae thinks of her dad, who is immensely proud that only two years out of college, she has landed a highly desirable job that grants her full financial independence.

Each wing of The Circle is named after a historical period; Mae is in the Renaissance along with the rest of Customer Experience. They walk inside, and a Calder mobile is hanging from the 40-foot glass atrium. Mae remarks that she loves Calder, to which Renata replies, “I know you do” (5). They go up in a glass elevator. Along the wall, a high school picture of Mae appears next to lights that read: “WELCOME MAE HOLLAND” (5).

They arrive at Mae’s floor and step out onto a catwalk. Mae says, “I guess you don’t put anyone with vertigo up here” (7). This rattles Renata, who becomes concerned about Mae’s well-being. Renata is confused because nothing she found in Mae’s profile suggested a problem with heights. When they arrive at a cubicle that is “grey and small and lined with a material like synthetic linen” (7), Mae is greatly disappointed because the cubicle is ugly and looks like the one she had at her previous job with the utility company. Mae lies and says she likes it.

Renata leaves, and Mae looks back on her time at the utility company in her hometown of Longfield, near Fresno, California. She was one of the few from her graduating class to escape Longfield and attend college. At the utility company, the workplace was drab and outdated, as were her coworkers. Her old cubicle was lined with burlap. Upon seeing this same material in her Circle workstation, she tears up.

Annie sneaks up on Mae and reveals that the ugly cubicle is a prank. She whisks her away for a tour, passing by a half-dozen Basquiat artworks into the Glass Eatery, and then onto the Borrow Room, where “anything from bicycles to telescopes to hang gliders were loaned, for free to anyone on staff” (15). They meet several Circlers, who are all working on innovative projects that could change the course of civilization.

On their way to a library that is supposed to be off-limits to “newbies” like Mae, they stop and look at a painting of the Three Wise Men. These men are The Circle’s leaders: Ty Gospodinov, Eamon Bailey, and Tom Stenton. Ty is the young, visionary founder, and most Circlers don’t know to what extent he is still running the company, if at all. He built the company on his invention TruYou, which streamlines an internet user’s various accounts into one online identity. This identity must match the user’s actual self.

They enter the Ochre Library, which is three levels high and built around an open atrium. Annie leads Mae up a staircase to the top floor, where she removes a book from the shelf, opening the wall to a secret room. The room is lined with books, but there is a fire pole in the middle leading down to an unknown location. Annie receives a message in her earpiece and says she must leave. She hands off Mae to Denise and Josiah, who show Mae around the sprawling campus and its lavish amenities while introducing her to many Circlers.

In the evening, Mae and Annie are at a big campus party thrown by Eamon Bailey. Mae gets drunk and loses Annie, then wanders alone throughout the party. She nearly passes out before deciding to seek out more Riesling. A mysterious man tells her where to find more, and he leads her to the bottom of a waterfall, where he has hidden a few bottles. They sit on steps above the lawn, watching the party below. He introduces himself as Francis, and they engage in flirtatious banter. Annie shows up and recognizes Francis, poking fun at him about bothering Mae. Francis leaves, and eventually, Mae takes a shuttle back to her apartment.