What are living things made of, and what does carbon have to do with it? What is genetic code, what are viruses, how does the evolutionary tree work, and why did the Cambrian explosion occur? This book provides relevant answers to these and many other questions.

The story focuses on the evolution of life on Earth: the author believes that only from this perspective do the most diverse biological problems acquire a unified meaning.

The book consists of four parts, the themes of which gradually expand: 'The Chemistry of Life,' 'The Mechanism of Life,' 'The Tree of Life,' and 'The History of Life.'