It is told through a series of flashbacks featuring an ordinary man in modern times.

It has been praised for "brilliant clarity and imaginative vision"[citation needed] (Sunday Telegraph) and hailed as "the great historic novel Wales has long deserved"[citation needed] (Wales on Sunday).

What exists is a complete story arc extending from the Old Stone Age to the late-Mediaeval period.

The story begins in the Old Stone Age and was intended to come right up to modern times, always focusing on ordinary people.

It was prepared for publication by his wife Joy Williams and was published in two volumes, along with a Postscript that gives a brief description of what the remaining work would have been.