As a result, the storyline of the Childe Morgan Trilogy immediately precedes Deryni Rising, despite the fact that it was published over thirty years after the first novel.

The population of Gwynedd includes both humans and Deryni, a race of people with inherent psychic and magical abilities who have been shunned and persecuted for centuries.

The book takes place almost entirely within Gwynedd's capital city of Rhemuth, and deals primarily with the struggle of young Prince Kelson Haldane to secure his throne from the machinations of a Deryni usurper.

The book covers a two-week period in November 1120, beginning with the death of King Brion Haldane while leading a hunting party outside the city of Rhemuth.

Immediately following Brion's death, his son and heir, Prince Kelson sends for his father's closest friend and advisor, Alaric Morgan, the Deryni Duke of Corwyn.

In 1971, Deryni Rising ranked 12th in an annual poll of Locus magazine readers, placing it between Dean Koontz's Beastchild and D. G. Compton's Chronocules.

In a 1987 poll, the readers of Locus ranked Deryni Rising as the 29th greatest fantasy novel of all time, placing it in a tie with E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros.