This is the most recent volume of Rutherfurd's Dublin Saga, the last of which, The Princes of Ireland, covered over a thousand years of Irish history as lived through the early ancestors of a group of families: the O"Byrne's, descended from the Kings of Ireland; the MacGowan's, craftsmen and merchants; the Harold's and the Doyle's, Viking families who settled and comprised a segment of the farmer and merchant classes; the Walshes, ancestors of Flemish knights who settled in Wales rather than continue on their journey; and the Tidy's, an assortment of craftsmen, merchants and local officials.