Aside from the events and the harassment itself, Garner explores themes of sexism, masculinity, feminism, gender wars, fraternalism in colleges, "Old Boys" and the establishment, and power balances in both educational settings and personal relationships.

[4] Mayer and Campbell accused the college's master, Alan Gregory,[5] (Colin Shepard in the book), of indecently groping them at an end of year party that followed a valedictory dinner.

Immediately struck by what Garner perceived to be a "punitive" and "priggish" response to the incident by the complainants, and her own ties to feminism, she called her female friends to discuss their angles.

Garner's friends' agreement with her own positioning–that by seeking punitive punishment and enforcement of the law to what she saw as a "hapless social blunder"–ignited the desire to delve deeper into the case and publish a book as a response to the incident.

Garner accessed transcripts, media publications, and had ties to women who knew the complainants, as well as employing her own experiences as "evidence" (a device that was of particular scrutiny from the books critics).

She concludes the book by highlighting the difference between real sexual violence and assault towards women, compared to what she perceived as a mostly trivial, boorish incident at Ormond.

[citation needed] Elements of the story became fictionalised–for example, the tutor who advised the students was split into nine separate characters giving the appearance of a "feminist conspiracy" at work.

In her review, Malcolm references a quote from the book, in which Garner fantasises about a "less destructive response" to the incident in which she confronts the Master, and tells him "this time I'm prepared to let it pass".

[2] James Wood, also writing for The New Yorker, wrote in a 2016 article that The First Stone "still seems a brilliantly prescient book – in its complexity, in the tense torque of its self-argument, and in its very vulnerability and stunned intolerance".