Editing This Perfect Day (section)

== Plot summary ==
Li RM35M4419, nicknamed "Chip" (as in "chip off the old block") by his nonconformist grandfather Jan, is a typical child Member, but through a mistake in genetic programming, he has one green eye. Through his grandfather's encouragement, he learns how to play a game of "wanting things," including imagining what career he might pick if he had the choice. Chip is told by his adviser that "deciding" and "picking" are manifestations of selfishness, and he tries to forget his dreams.

As Chip grows up and begins his career, he is mostly a good citizen but commits minor subversive acts, such as procuring art materials for another "nonconformist" member who was denied them.  His occasional oddities attract the attention of a secret group of Members of nonconformists, like Chip.  There, he meets King, a Medicenter chief who obtains members' records for potential future recruitment to the group; King's beautiful girlfriend, Lilac, a strong-willed and inquisitive woman with unusually dark skin; and Snowflake, a rare [[albino]] member. They teach Chip how to get his treatments reduced so that he can feel more and stronger emotions. Chip begins an affair with Snowflake but is really attracted to Lilac.

Chip and Lilac begin to search through old museum maps and soon discover islands around the world that have disappeared from their modern map. They begin to wonder if perhaps other "incurable" members have escaped to the islands. King tells them that the idea is nonsense, but Chip soon learns that King has already interacted with some "incurables" and that they are indeed real. Before he can tell Lilac, Chip's ruse is discovered by his adviser.  He and all the other members of the group are captured and treated back into docility (except King, who takes his own life before he can be captured).

Some years later, Chip's regular treatment is delayed by an earthquake. In the meanwhile, he begins to "wake up" again and remembers Lilac and the islands. He is able to shield his arm from the treatment nozzle and becomes fully awake for the first time. He locates Lilac again and kidnaps her. At first, she fights him, but as she too becomes more "awake," she remembers the islands and comes willingly. Finding a convenient abandoned boat on the beach, they head for the nearest island of incurables, [[Majorca]]. There, they learn that UniComp, as a last resort, has planted failsafes that eventually lead all incurables to the islands, where they will be trapped forever from the treated population. After living "free" on Majorca, Chip and Lilac eventually marry and have a child together.

Chip conceives of a plan to destroy the computer, UniComp, by blowing up its refrigeration system. He recruits other incurables to join him, and they make their way to the mainland. Just as they reach UniComp, one of the incurables, an agent of the programmers, betrays his partners and leads the rest of the group at gunpoint to a secret luxurious underground city beneath UniComp, where they are met by Wei, one of the original planners of the Unification. Wei and the other "programmers" who live in UniComp have arranged the test so that the most daring and resourceful incurables will make their way to UniComp. There, they too will live in luxury as programmers.

After joining the programmers and a few tentative attempts to confide in someone, Chip shares his misgivings with no one, lies low, and dedicates himself to the task of gaining Wei's confidence.  For example, to deceive Wei, Chip consents to the replacement of his green eye with a brown one even though it involves giving up a cherished part of his identity.

However, nine months later, a new group of incurables arrives, and Chip leaves the welcome party with the intention of using the newcomers' explosives to blow up the master computer. A physical struggle with Wei, who has the body of a young athlete, results in Wei being shot. Just before he is killed, Wei reveals his true motive in creating the dystopia: "there's ''joy'' in having it, in controlling, in being the only one." Chip knew all along that it was power hunger, not altruism, that drove Wei to chicanery and murder. Chip succeeds in destroying Uni with the explosives. On his way up from the underground city towards sunlight, Chip tells an angry programmer:  "'There’s joy in having it': those were [Wei's] last words. Everything else was rationalization. And self-deception."

The book ends with Chip riding a helicopter toward [[Majorca]], where Lilac, their son, financial sponsors, and friends are hopefully waiting for him. For the first time in his life, he sees raindrops in daytime, nature's affirmation that the era of slavery and total control is finally over.