Anderson states that this book is meant to document “finding my courage to speak up twenty-five years after I was raped, writing Speak, and talking with countless survivors of sexual violence” (1), which has influenced her life and work. Anderson begins the book’s Prelude, entitled “mic test,” with a poem to describe her project when writing this memoir. She writes about the book’s mission using imagery to describe her life as a means for the reader to understand “what I feel like / on the inside” (3).

Part 1 opens with Anderson’s father’s traumatic experiences serving in the US army during World War II. He was 18 years old at the time of his service. He witnessed the brutal deaths of his fellow soldiers and served as part of a unit that helped to liberate Dachau concentration camp. As an old man, her father tells her he witnessed horrific sights at Dachau, but he also witnessed a woman giving birth to a baby in a ditch, which inspired him.

Anderson’s father marries his mother, but he suffers from post-war depression and alcoholism. Her mother later admits he was once violent towards her, claiming that “‘I wouldn’t shut up,’ / she said, ‘He had to’” (12).