Lacy Crawford was a scholarship student at an elite prep school in New Hampshire when a sexual assault changed her life. Anyone who doubts that patriarchy exists would do well to read how the legal and political establishment reacted when Crawford tried to break her silence. What lingers with me just as much as Crawford’s heroism (and how the male power structure closed ranks) are the many small details of kindness she recounts. Even in a culture of ritualized and ingrained cruelty and indifference, there were people who cared for each other and fought the system.