Nussbaum was in the apartment when Steinberg beat Lisa into a coma. Nussbaum's face and body were deformed from his assaults, which had begun in 1978. The author reports that neighbors hear the battered woman screaming, but they do nothing and look through her the next day. They say it is the victim's fault or that the victim likes the beating, or they deny that the spouse abuse is happening. The victim begins to feel that she does not exist. Doctors either do not listen, or they give the victim tranquilizers or threaten to commit her, saying that she is disoriented and paranoid. The victim become unable to use language, because it stops meaning anything. The victim cannot talk to anyone; if she does, the batterer will hurt her more. Her isolation becomes absolute when she loses language. Eventually the author wanted to die. She has been living with a gentle man for the last 15 years, but for many years was terrified of the danger from her first husband. She wonders why it is considered acceptable to hurt adult women but not children and whether the 17-month-old boy who was abused in the same apartment with Lisa will become a batterer when he becomes an adult.