Based on the novel of the same name by Veronica Roth, the film is set in post-apocalyptic Chicago in which the former class system lost its meaning. Instead, the survivors are now divided into five distinct factions based on the main human virtues. As a rite of passage, every young individual must choose, according to their physical and intellectual skills and dispositions, one of these factions: Abnegation - the selfless, Amity - the peaceful, Candor - the honest, Dauntless - the brave, or Erudite - the intelligent. According to the rules of this new social system and in line with the phrase “Faction over Blood”, each member of the faction must place loyalty to their particular faction above family ties.

On the surface, the virtuous faction system, which the powers that be put in place to prevent any future wars and conflicts, works seamlessly and everybody accepts it. Look closely though, and just under the surface of this golden veneer deep cracks are starting to emerge:

Though the factions are designed to complement each other, infighting and a bitter rivalry for leadership between them is rife. What is more, rumours about the members of the society who do not fit into this perfect system of factions, so called ‘Divergent’ start to spread.

The time comes when Beatrice Prior, a teenager born into an Abnegation family, has to choose her own faction within which she would spend the rest of her life. To her surprise and shock, an aptitude test that should indicate, and thus help her to choose, the faction for which she is best suited, comes up inconclusive, indicating predisposition for no less than three factions: Abnegation, Dauntless and Erudite, meaning she is Divergent. While Beatrice tries to make sense of this unexpected revelation, the tester, a Dauntless female, falsifies the result of the test as showing aptitude towards Abnegation, and tells her to keep the true result of the test secret, warning her that since Divergent can think independently, they are considered a threat to the established social order.

Beatrice heeds her advice and when the time comes the next day at the Choosing Ceremony, she, though not without long hesitation, chooses Dauntless faction, while her brother Caleb chooses Erudite. Beatrice's plight is not over yet though, as their instructor, nicknamed Four, explains that not all the initiates can join the Dauntless faction – they will be ranked during the strenuous initiation tests and only the top ten will be allowed to remain. The rest will be dismissed from Dauntless faction and, since they cannot re-join their former families, become factionless and forced to live in destitution on the edge of society.

The story of Divergent is far too formulaic and shallow for anybody to care about the mythology of this unlikely dystopian world.

Being physically weaker than most of her fellow initiates, Tris, as Beatrice wants to be known from now on, initially struggles in the tests, but slowly improves via rigorous training. After losing fight with her fellow initiate and adversary Peter and being hospitalised, Tris almost falls out of Dauntless, but then redeems herself by playing a key role in winning a military-style capture-the-flag game.

After the physical stage of initiation tests, the initiates are put through virtual reality simulations in order to face their worst fears. Tris's divergence helps her to pass, or rather cleverly bypass, all these tests, which does not go unnoticed by her tester Four, whose real name is Tobias Eaton. A romantic relationship starts to develop between Tris and Four, who reveals himself as being Divergent too, and advises Tris to conceal her divergence and try and solve the challenges in virtual reality simulations the way a true Dauntless would. When the day of the final tests comes, Tris passes through all of them without revealing that she is Divergent.

In the meanwhile, Tris learns from her brother, now a member of Erudite faction, that Erudite are planning to overthrow the Abnegation-dominated government by force and become the ruling faction themselves.

During the initiation ceremony of Dauntless faction, all Dauntless are injected with a serum purported to be a harmless tracking device, but turning out to be a mind-controlling substance which causes all of the Dauntless becoming mindless killing machines, used by Erudite to attack the ruling Abnegation faction. As the serum does not work on Tris or Four because of their divergence, they see through the Erudite’s vile plan and, with help of their friends and families, manage to thwart it. Film ends with Tris, Four and their friends escaping from the city and riding the train into the sunset.

Divergent is a bit of a hit-and-miss experience. While the performances of the lead actors Shailene Woodley as Beatrice "Tris" Prior and Theo James as Tobias "Four" Eaton make the film mostly watchable and even mildly entertaining, the story is far too formulaic and shallow

for anybody to care about the mythology of this unlikely dystopian world. Although the film has a few bright moments, escapades of the Dauntless pack being one of them, it will ultimately satisfy only the die hard fans of the Divergent trilogy of novels.