The Winthrop Covenant is a collection of nine stories, thematically related and arranged chronologically from 1630 to 1970s. They are designed to trace, by the use of fiction and dramatized history, the rise and fall of the Puritan ethic in New York and New England. The characters of the stories are different members of the Winthrop family but only John and Wait Still are modeled on actual persons.(adapted from author's foreword)