Stylistically and structurally experimental, the novel follows the development of human society into the 27th century and depicts global-scale conflicts between future polities, technologies, and natural forces, culminating in the catastrophic harvesting of Iceland's volcanic energy in order to melt Greenland's ice cap.

Inspired by the mundane sight of pebbles rolling in the Baltic Sea surf in the summer of 1921, Döblin began writing Berge Meere und Giganten that fall, conducting extensive research into various natural and human sciences in the process.

At the same time that it sees radical technological innovations, Europe suffers declining birth rates and experiences waves of mass migration from Africa.

Later, researchers led by a scientist named Meki invent synthetic food production, which leads to the abandonment of farms and the countryside, a new wave of urbanization, and the solidification of the Senates' political control.

By the twenty-seventh century, freed from the need to support themselves the masses have again become idle and restless; it becomes increasingly difficult to even find enough people to run the synthetic food factories.

Columns made to look like bulls are erected in city squares and at crossroads, and roar twice a day like a dying animal to remind people of the catastrophe of the Ural War.

The resurgent London senate seeks to bring Marduk's excesses under control, and he in turn attempts to expand his realm to gain more cultivable land, attacking nearby city-states such as Hamburg and Hannover.

The draining of the cities grows into a settler movement: egalitarian communities that live in nature, characterized by gender equality and sexual liberation.

Marine life and sea birds of all kinds are attracted towards them, and crew stationed aboard them for too long begin acting intoxicated and amorous.

In a frenzied technological mania, some of the scientists turn themselves into giant monsters and wander around Europe, wreaking havoc and forgetting their original intent.

As the traumatized remnants of the Iceland expedition come into contact with the settlers, a new type of society comes into existence, marked by a reconciled relationship to nature and egalitarian social relations.

Within the large number of creatures that compose their bodies, they begin to lose their individual human consciousness and grow into the earth, becoming mountains and hills in England and Cornwall.

[5] Döblin's experiences during the First World War, when he served in Alsace as a military doctor, left their mark on the novel: psychically damaged veterans, devastated landscapes, and all-destructive technological excesses give this novel its particularly apocalyptic feeling.

Hannelore Qual argues against this that Berge Meere und Giganten is instead characterized by an optimistic view of social and historical perfectibility; the portrayals of catastrophic destruction and brutally authoritarian regimes reflect, in this reading, not Döblin's own world view but instead different historical possibilities, alongside which more egalitarian and peaceful social orders are to be found.

[7] Stylistically, it is characterized by its innovative syntax and the frequent paratactic use of multiple subjects, objects, and verbs in a single sentence without conjunctions or punctuation to separate them.

[8] The novel was regarded as a difficult work upon its release, and its experimental stylistic, structural, and thematic idiosyncrasies have often provoked emotional judgments from critics, ranging from fascination to repulsion.

[10] Despite the early fascination with the novel, after the Second World War it fell into neglect as critical attention to Döblin was directed primarily towards his next novel, Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929), and a new edition of Berge Meere und Giganten was not published until 1977.

"[13] Döblin would later write that the original inspiration for the novel was the sight of pebbles rolling in the surf on the Baltic Sea coast during a family vacation in the summer of 1921; this epiphanic vision provoked a sudden and uncharacteristic interest in nature for Döblin, who began taking extensive notes in various Berlin museums and libraries on natural history and science, geology, geography, climatology, ethnography, and other fields.

"[18] In a 2011 biography, Wilfried Schoeller has suggested that there was an additional reason for Döblin's breakdown—namely, that the temporary move to Zehlendorf was also his unsuccessful attempt to leave his wife in favor of his lover Charlotte Niclas.

On June 15, 2021, Galileo Publishing released the first English translation of the novel, by Chris Godwin, under the title Mountains Oceans Giants: An Epic of the 27th Century.