The book aims at a comprehensive critique of Darwinian evolution. The essence of Darwinism, suggests Denton, is continuity. Darwinism suggests that life is fundamentally continuous, and that in principle, the gaps between living organisms can all be bridged, and were all bridged at some point in the past. By contrast, Denton holds to the discontinuous, topologist view of biology propounded in the 19th century by Richard Owen. Denton marshals a great deal of evidence, both theoretical and empirical, to buttress his case. He points out that for many organisms, even conceptualizing an intermediate is impossible.