Summary

In Chapter 1, "October 1990, Fifth Form," Crawford describes the night she was sexually assaulted. In her junior year at St. Paul's School, or SPS, a boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire, Lacy responded to a classmate's call by visiting his room. Though he was a senior and she did not know him, she thought he needed her help. When she arrived, he and his roommate were sitting undressed on the bed. They told her to be quiet and pushed her down. "Their cocks penetrated her throat past the pharynx and poked the soft back of her esophagus" (4). Afterwards, she snuck to her room undetected.

For a long time, Crawford did not have the words to describe the attack. Twenty-fire years later she discovered the legal terminology. She examines these words, and their implications regarding her experience.

Crawford describes the culture at St. Paul's. If...