Hutchinson recalls the anxiety and dread she experienced before testifying for the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, also known as the January 6 Hearings. She was so “panic-stricken” that she had asked her lawyers for more time and considered fleeing the car on the way to the hearing. Hutchinson explains that on this day, she was testifying to “clarify and extend” her testimony since she had previously withheld information from the committee (xvii). Hutchinson knew that by testifying, she could incriminate the former president, and she would lose friendships and working relationships. She tells the reader that her work will explain how she came to work as a White House aide and the events that led to her testimony.

Hutchinson grew up in Pennington, New Jersey, where her father owned a landscaping company. Due to her family’s wariness of doctors, hospitals, and medications, Hutchinson and her younger brother were both born at home. She had close relationships with her mother’s side of the family and credits her father and grandmother with being especially hardworking.

Hutchinson recalls the confusion of the 9/11 attacks, which happened when she was five years old. While she did not understand the events, she and her family bought American flags and planted them on their lawn.