The book details the behind-the-scenes and publicly known processes the authors employed to investigate and publish stories uncovering sexual harassment and sexual abuse by high-profile and powerful men including Harvey Weinstein. The book details new information that helped break the Weinstein story, including sources, documents, and chasing leads. It follows the reporters "from the first exploratory phone calls, to a mounting trail of evidence, to a final face off with a [well known] belligerent" accused person.[5] The book also deals with the open questions about which behaviors and gray areas should constitute sexual harassment:[6]
Kantor admitted that there is “a mounting sense of unfairness on both sides” about a system that no one thinks “works for the accuser, or the accused." Their job remains, as Kantor put it, to ask the three main questions surrounding any allegation: “What is the scope of the behaviors under scrutiny?;” “How do we get the facts right?;” and “What should punishment and accountability look like?”
The authors continue to investigate these questions. To help persuade sources to talk to them, the sources were told that what happened in the past cannot be changed but "together we may be able to use your experience to help protect other people."[5][7]
Gwyneth Paltrow was instrumental in helping the reporter-authors behind the scenes and whose efforts are chronicled in the book. Near the end of the book, the authors discuss Christine Blasey Ford and the choices that led her to publicly confront Brett Kavanaugh, then a Supreme Court nominee.[8][9]
