The first of the ten tales in the book features Puck's account of the advent, worship, and end of pagan Gods in Britain, focusing on one in particular, Weland, Smith of the Nordic Gods. In the second through fourth stories, the Norman knight Sir Richard Dalyngridge tells of his coming as a boy in 1066 with William the Conqueror to take England and instead being taken by the country (Norman and Saxon cultures and peoples merging into a new England), going as a middle-aged man on a pilgrimage that morphs into a Danish piratical voyage to Africa (men joyfully adventuring), and trying as an old man to help his lord protect England from internal and external foes (making the inevitable transition from youth to old age). 

The fifth through seventh stories are told by Parnesius, a British-born Roman, about his career as a centurion stationed on Hadrian's Wall during the 4th century when the Spanish general Maximus pulled vital troops from England to help him in his effort to become Emperor of Rome, making it more difficult to protect the Wall from Picts and "Winged Hats" (Vikings). Like Sir Richard's stories, Parnesius' are about the rich mix of British culture, the rewards of male friendship, the need to give yourself to something bigger and better than yourself, and the swiftness by which young people grow up.

In the eighth story, "Hal-o-the Draft," a young, talented, cocky Renaissance draftsman-architect is sent to renovate a church in Sussex, where his job is complicated by a Scottish pirate, local smugglers, and the explorer Sebastian Cabot. The ninth story is told by Puck in the guise of a local rustic about the "flitting" of fairies from England during the Reformation, because fairies (like bees) cannot abide hate and war. In the last story a Jewish physician named Kadmiel relates his key role in the writing and signing of the Magna Carta in 1215. Kadmiel's story conveys what it was like to be a cruelly exploited and persecuted Jew, expresses the belief in universal freedom for all people, and ties up all the tales by revealing what happened to the treasure that was gained by the sword that was made by Weland in the first story.

Kipling writes some wonderful prose in this compact book. He evokes the lush Sussex countryside as experienced by healthy, active, and curious children.