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The author starts from the Big Bang – "In the Beginning" – and estimates the age of the universe at 15–20 billion years, using methods such as radioactive decay and redshift. Events follow one another: the formation of galaxies and stars from gases and dust, the birth of the Solar System from clouds of hydrogen and helium 4.6 billion years ago. He describes a young Earth – a hot, volcanic ball without oxygen, bombarded by meteorites.

Life begins 3.5 billion years ago in the oceans, where organic molecules self-assemble into primitive cells. Brooks discusses the theory of chemical evolution: from ammonia and methane to proteins and DNA, considering experiments such as the Miller-Urey. The question: coincidence or design? He analyzes Precambrian rocks with algae fossils, meteorites with amino acids and the hypothesis of panspermia – life from space? He touches on the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, due to an asteroid impact, and concludes that science does not exclude creation, but complements it.