Pervasive concerns of In Our Time include the following: societal and personal effects of war and violence, necessary confrontations with death, with questions of mortality and immortality, and the complexity of human relationships in families (especially among fathers, mothers, and sons) and in marriage or the relationships of couples. More than half of the stories in this closely-connected story-cycle (or experimental novel — please see "Techniques") deal with the experience of Nick Adams, portraying key moments from childhood to maturity, following him as he grows up, feels acutely the tension in his parents' relationship, breaks up with his girlfriend, leaves home, goes off to war and is badly wounded, and finally returns home.

In Our Time also participates deeply in the primary social concern shared by many major literary works which appeared in the aftermath of World War I: to wit, the sense that Western Civilization...