The book collects three short stories originally published in the magazines Fantastic for April 1970, Fantastic Stories of Imagination for October 1962, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for April 1970, together with an "Induction" that originally appeared in the 1957 Fafhrd and Gray Mouser collection Two Sought Adventure (later expanded, minus the induction, as Swords Against Death (1970).

The Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories concern the lives of two larcenous but likable rogues as they adventure across the fantasy world of Nehwon.

The stories in Swords and Deviltry introduce the duo and their relationship ("Induction"), present incidents from their early lives in which they meet their first lady-loves (Fafhrd in "The Snow Women", the Gray Mouser in "The Unholy Grail"), and relate how afterwards in the city of Lankhmar the two met and allied themselves with each other, and lost their first loves through their defiance of the local Thieves' Guild ("Ill Met in Lankhmar").

Robin Wayne Bailey later wrote an authorized sequel to this book, Swords Against the Shadowland (1998).

Referenced in Dodge Rolls “Enter the Gungeon”, “Grey Mauser” Weapon which is unlocked by completing the quest given by the NPC with the same name and also in Terry Pratchett's Discworld showing up in the first two novels ("The Colour of Magic" and "The Light Fantastic").