A protective order is a piece of paper that works only if it is enforced, and the gap between what such orders promise and what they deliver is one of the most studied and least resolved problems in American law. This article explains what a protective order actually is, how the two-stage process of an ex parte temporary order followed by a full hearing operates, and what a petitioner must prove at each stage. It covers the relief available beyond a no-contact provision — exclusive possession of a residence, temporary custody, support, firearms surrender, and address confidentiality — and why the firearms provision is both the most consequential and the least consistently implemented. It then addresses enforcement: the federal full faith and credit requirement that makes an order portable across state lines, the criminal and contempt consequences of violation, and the constitutional holding in Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales that a protective order creates no due-process entitlement to police enforcement. The final sections cover respondents' rights and the real consequences of an order, the problem of mutual orders, the federal firearms prohibition sustained in United States v. Rahimi, and the immigration and housing protections that frequently matter more to a petitioner than the order itself.