Emma Goldman is one of the most celebrated activists and philosophers of the early 20th century, admired and reviled for her anarchist ideas and vociferous support of free speech and personal liberation.

A polarizing figure in life, Emma Goldman was among the first advocates of birth control for women. From 1900 to 1920 she was in and out of jail in the United States on charges of illegally promoting contraception, inciting riots in favor of her social and economic causes, and discouraging potential recruits to avoid the draft for World War I. Although Goldman initially supported the Bolshevik Revolution, the resulting Soviet Union's repressiveness caused an abrupt reversal in her opinion.

Goldman's narrative is thorough yet compelling; her childhood in Russia, her emigration to the USA as a teenager, and her attraction to anarchist and social causes is told.