The Owl at Dawn is a continuation of the narrative of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. Where Hegel's narrative ends with the apotheosis of "absolute knowing," Cutrofello begins with the collapse of this very standpoint. He then develops a continuation of the dialectical movements that lead from the rift between the certainty and truth of absolute knowing, through every major post-Hegelian philosophical position, to a point that represents an original reconception of the telos of dialectical phenomenology.

As the narrative progresses, it becomes clear that two general movements were necessary to supplement the Hegelian story: a working out of gender-theoretic issues and the deconstruction of all truth claims. The result, which Cutrofello calls a "Nietzschean Satyagraha," is an original epistemic and ethical starting point for a systematic philosophy of praxis. Analytic philosophers, continental philosophers, gender theorists, sociologists, and psychoanalytic theorists will all find the major theoretical positions of their disciplines presented and critiqued in this bold philosophical thought experiment.