The Left Hand of Darkness

The book is set on the cold planet of Winter/Gethen, mostly from the perspective of a human from Earth assigned to make first contact with the planet's people in order to ask them to join a federation of planets. The inhabitants of the planet, the Gethians, are unique among humanoids in that they are agender and nonsexual most of the year, except for the specific time of "kemmer", when they can turn into either sex. There has never been a war on Gethen, but factions are growing, and the visiting human hopes he can get the people to join the federation of planets and get them to a state of global unity before they destroy each other.

Every chapter is told from someone's perspective, without the benefit of an omniscient narrator. Characters make wrong assumptions. Miscommunication abounds. Misunderstanding leads to mistrust. Some chapters are fables from Gethen, meant to give a glimpse of their cultural traditions, but hard to decipher for someone outside the culture. Despite showing how easy it is to be ignorant of different people and the cruelty that stems from fear, the book has many tender moments, emphasizing the attempts to understand across cultural differences, the inherent dignity of all people, and the kindness and hospitaility of strangers.