Ian's previous trilogy of novels - The Wizard from the Isles, Tribulation and Dark Renaissance - were about wizards of Nature and their dealings with a hostile world. Aran, Wizard of the Vales is about a wizard whose capacity is a Sight that enables him to see the secrets behind the events of his lifetime. With that Sight he is able to construct a history that is different to the self-justifying accounts of the victors in war and the dominating powers in peacetime. He lays bare the corruption of politics and the stupidity of the common folk. Aran's origins are in the Outer Isles of Scotland, but his personal history makes him a citizen of a much wider world: he knows the languages and understands the cultures. He is accompanied on his life's journey by Constancia, his soul mate and much more. The strength and duration of their "forbidden" relationship is an illustration of the pointlessness of the superstition-based conventions by which most people live. Aran and Constancia move between different vales of residence, from Europe to the eastern Caribbean, where they find an island that preserves Nature at her purest.
They return to their birthplace in the Pyrenees - the Val d'Aran - to take their final leave of the world. Their view of the future of humanity is far from positive.