On May 2, 1973, Assata Shakur was driving down the New Jersey Turnpike with fellow members of the Black Liberation Army, Sundiata Acoli and Zayd Malik Shakur, when New Jersey state troopers apprehended them. A shootout ensued, leading to multiple deaths.

The first chapter opens with Shakur’s memory of being wounded on the New Jersey Turnpike after the shootout. She heard one of the cops on the scene say that they “oughta finish her off” (3), but before they could enact further violence toward her, they became consumed with searching her car. Shakur felt as though her “chest was on fire” and she could not feel her arm (3). An ambulance took Shakur to the hospital, where she was handcuffed to her bed and interrogated by the police. She was beaten repeatedly and told by the cops, “If you don’t hurry up and start talking, I’m gonna bash your face in for you” (5). Shakur tried to relay a message to a nurse to contact her aunt, Evelyn Williams, who was also her lawyer. However, this was to no avail.

The police moved Shakur to a private suite to continue torturing her. She learned that Zayd was killed and Sundiata was arrested.