The book opens with the strange encounter between Abbot Finnian and Tuan mac Cairill, a man who has lived through successive transformations from human to stag, boar, hawk, and salmon, carrying the history of Ireland in his memory. We then witness the boyhood of Fionn, raised by druid women in the forest, learning to run with hares and swim like an otter before claiming his destiny as leader of the Fianna. Stories follow of how Fionn defeated Aillen mac Midna to save Tara from magic fire, and how Bran and Sceo'lan were born from an enchanted hound. Further tales recount the wooing of Becfola, the disastrous brawl at Allen involving clann-Morna, and the fierce Carl of the Drab Coat who raced Cael of the Iron across sixty miles of countryside.
Finally, the collection reaches the epic cave of Cesh Corran where Fionn is trapped by monstrous hags and rescued by Goll mac Morna, culminating in the intricate tragedies of Mongan. Throughout these tales, Stephens weaves a world where the boundaries between men, beasts, and gods are fluid, and memory spans millennia. The narrative voice is by turns heroic, whimsical, and melancholy, capturing the very cadence of oral storytelling. The ending gently hints at the twilight of these ancient powers as the old world yields inevitably to the new.
