The premise of the book is that the four authors, who have a book club discussing Toni Morrison novels, write chapters reflecting on themes present in those novels. As such, most of the conversations around rape, sexual assault, and child sexual abuse occur because those dynamics exist in Morrison's novels. In particular, the sexual violence perpetrated against enslaved women comes up a lot. A few authors also discuss their own experiences with sexual harassment. One of them relates how, when she was a child, an adult she did not know repeatedly tried to get her to enter his car. Another describes how, when she was a teenager, she escaped a man who was harassing her in an ice cream shop.