The book describes the "Two Johns'" respective childhoods, their first meeting at Softdisk in 1989 and the eventual founding of their own company, id Software. It discusses in detail the company's first successes, the popular and groundbreaking "Commander Keen" and "Wolfenstein 3D" games, as well as the new heights the company reached with "Doom", which granted the company unprecedented success, fame and notoriety. It also discusses id's next project, "Quake", as well as the aftermath of Romero's departure from the company and his founding – and the eventual collapse – of Ion Storm, his new game development studio. Kushner also describes the new gamer culture created by "Doom" and its impact on society.