An opening chapter, The Poetry, explains how the modern garden has evolved. The book is then split into a series of thematic chapters. The Grammar looks at the basic structure of garden design from initial thoughts, inspiration from the landscape, understanding of proportion, and underlying influences such as art and architecture; The Narrative considers styles of different types of modernist gardens, including roof gardens, courtyard gardens, urban gardens, country gardens, and landscape gardens; this chapter then looks at creative ways of using an ever-changing palette of plants in the modernist garden.