As a child, Jacquelyn Shah recognized she could not count on anyone else for her needs, so she developed the attitude to "expect nothing" in order to avoid being disappointed. Then, in college, deep thoughts and literature led her to believe living was useless, so she attempted suicide. Amazed to still be alive, Shah develops a taste for living in a purposeful way. "I wanted to live my years however I chose, and I think I wanted to be, was being, a little, wild. But I was definitely not lost."

Limited Engagement is a memoir by Jacquelyn Shah describing her life choices from childhood through adulthood, showing how her feminist consciousness developed, despite growing up in a dysfunctional family, to influence her writing, her living, her perspective on others, and her eventual formation of WAVE, Women Against Violence Everywhere.