The book begins in 6000 BC and ends in 1942, the year when Mahatma Gandhi, started the Quit India Movement.

Later, he wrote 20 short stories while imprisoned in Hazaribagh Central Jail for taking part in the struggle for Indian independence.

People were wary of the new armament which was fast replacing the older stone equipment (fourth story – "Puruhoot" (Tajikistan 2500 BC)).

The same story tells how an arms race was started during that period and how southerners amassed great wealth at the expense of the northerners.

The tenth story, Nagdatt, suggests that Indians, the Greeks, and people from the Middle-East mingled easily with each other in the times of Chanakya and Alexander.

This story is about a philosopher classmate of Chanakya who travels to Persia and Greece and learns how Athens fell to Macedonia.

The last story ("Sumer", 1942) is about a man who goes on to fight the Japanese because he wants Soviet Russia to triumph, for this nation, according to him, is the only hope left for humanity.