The novel describes the exploits of Hilda Fitzherbert, a 23-year-old Undersecretary for Home Affairs in a future where the British Empire has achieved both female suffrage (which New Zealand granted in real life in 1893) and become an Imperial Federation, which also included Belgium and coastal territories along the English Channel.

Miss Fitzherbert foils the Republican plans and falls in love with Emperor Albert, the dashing young ruler of the Federated British Empire.

Several years later, the Emperor and his Empress find that their opinions about male primacy in royal succession have reversed themselves, when faced with a brilliantly competent princess and bookish, scholarly prince as prospective heirs apparent to the throne.

Literary scholar Roger Robinson has described Anno Domini 2000 as ""that unenviable kind of book that many have heard of [in New Zealand] but almost no one has read".

An ebook version was published in 2013 by Hurricane Press with a retrospective chapter describing the origins of the book and the early newspaper reviews.