By carefully selecting extracts from sources, scholars, and scriptwriters, Gordon McMullan tells a series of stories about Romeo and Juliet, globally and from their legend's origins to the present day.

The Norton Critical Edition includes:
- Introductory materials and explanatory annotations by Gordon McMullan as well as numerous images.
- Sources and early rewritings by Luigi Da Porto, Matteo Bandello, Pierre Boaistuau, Kareen Seidler, and Thomas Otway, among others.
- Critical readings and later rewritings spanning four centuries and including those by Stanley Wells, Wendy Wall, Dympna C. Callaghan, Jill L. Levenson, Nia?h Cusack, David Tennant, and Courtney Lehmann.
- A Selected Bibliography.