Aside from the introduction by Blackburn, most of the book is taken up with transcribed interviews from men and women who knew Billie at different times in her life. Pimps from Baltimore who encountered her as a teenage prostitute: various musicians who accompanied her at different points of her career: a woman who worked as her assistant: her lawyer: the narcotics agent, a black man who feels remorse because he was also a fan and knew that there was injustice in her arrest and harassment. Of course everyone has their own slant on Billie, but what is so strong about this collection of memoirs is that the sum total of it all feels like a genuine portrait.