This new and innovative text helps students develop a deeper understanding of organic chemistry. It treats the subject as a coherent whole, complete with numerous logical connections, consequences, and an underlying structure and "language." Employing an approach based on mechanism and reaction type, the book emphasizes understanding ideas rather than merely memorizing facts. It shows students how to realistically draw molecules and mechanisms to reveal the fundamental chemistry.

Using a fresh, accessible writing style as well as examples from everyday life, the authors explain the basics of organic chemistry carefully and thoroughly. A special focus on mechanism, orbitals, and stereochemistry helps students gain a solid comprehension of important factors common to all reactions. The book's innovative design enhances clarity and instruction with boxes that separate summary information and other material from the main text; a variety of colors that draw attention to items such as atoms, molecules, and orbitals; and figures that are drawn in red with significant parts emphasized in black. Early chapters feature carbonyl group reactions, and later chapters systematically develop the chemistry through discussions of spectroscopy, stereochemistry and chemical reactions.