[1][3] The novel is a collection of five short stories ("Turkhana Knives", "The Place of Stones", "Slaves of the Giant-Kings", "Horror in the Black Hills", and "The City of Madness") which were originally published during the 1970s in Dark Fantasy, a fanzine published by Canadian comic book artist Gene Day, as well as the fanzines Night Voyages, Dragonbane, and Phantasy Digest.

Imaro was the first book in a proposed series of novels about the eponymous hero, set in the fantasy world of Nyumbani (a continent based on Africa).

This new edition excludes "The Slaves of the Giant-Kings", which Saunders felt held too many parallels to the present-day Rwandan genocide.

Growing up among the Ilyassai, a fierce tribe of warrior-herdsmen who despite his origin, a young Imaro struggles for acceptance after the breaking of a taboo forces his mother to leave him behind.

Departing from the Ilyassai, Imaro roams afar, wandering across the vast continent of Nyumbani, pitting his prodigious strength or courage against men, beasts, and demons.