The words are from a poem by John Henry Newman. They are supposed to be the words of a man called Gerontius who is dying. He imagines what is going to happen to him when he dies: how he will meet God who will judge whether he has been good enough to go to heaven. The angel speaks to him in the poem. There is also a priest, and a short solo for the Angel of Agony. The work is in two parts. Part I is about 40 minutes long and Part II lasts about an hour.