Porters book traces Kollontais development as a Marxist as well as her growing concern with the position of women in Russias backward economy.

From early on, Kollontai fought for the Russian revolutionary movement to take work amongst women workers and peasants seriously. In this she was often derided or ignored as this was seen to be a distraction from the more important task of developing revolutionary politics and ideas.

Kollontai also faced the sexism of the early socialist movement, and after her exile to Germany, the entrenched ideas of the German socialist parties.

One of the most interesting chapters in this biography is the section where Porter looks at Kollontais experiences in Germany. A popular and passionate speaker, she toured the country speaking to crowds of workers, trying to win them to the German SPD. In this she was enormously successful, though the partys bureaucrats where often less sure of her arguments around the emancipation of women.