In a Preface, Butler situates the book in the context of the post-9/11 United States. Butler criticizes the US response to the attacks, which included increased surveillance, nationalism, and censorship. Butler acknowledges the vulnerability wrought by the loss of life and breach of the nation’s boundaries but calls into question the necessity of responding with retributive violence.

Instead, Butler suggests that an “injury” such as that experienced by the United States offers an opportunity to reimagine the nature of the global community and its “inevitable interdependency,” arguing that final control—such as that sought by the United States—is not possible.

Butler outlines each of the five essays in the book. The first focuses on dissent and the censorship of those who sought to understand the historical and political factors that contributed to the 9/11 attacks. The second examines loss through a psychoanalytic lens to explore violent responses to mournable acts and examines the policing of mourning and grief in the public sphere. The third essay focuses on the detention of political prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and the ethics of sovereign control over their fates, as they are not subject to the protection of international law.