Mailer talks of his involvement with the group of writers who spoke out against the Ayatollah Khomeini's death threats to Salman Rushdie and against Waldenbooks, who pulled Rushdie's book, Satanic Verses, from their shelves. He recounts the meeting between the writers and a group of Black Muslims to come to some understanding of their opposing positions. He tries to convey a sense of what Khomeini's threat symbolized to Western writers.