Peace is Every Step is a novel designed to instruct new students on methods of meditation, conscious breathing, and enlightenment. Based on Zen Buddhism, Thich Nhat Hanh's method of instruction is simple, easy to follow, and focuses on everyday activities and situations. By using anecdotes, personal stories, and meditation techniques, Hanh shows how meditation in normal situations, using conscious breathing, can remind readers to be conscious of their present existences. In doing so, readers can improve their relationships, lower their anger levels, and increase overall feelings of peace and joy. Peace is Every Step is a personal journey through awareness in an effort to obtain the inner peace necessary to work towards peace on a worldwide scale.

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Zen master, spiritual leader and author known worldwide for his efforts to bring peace and harmony to all persons. Born in Vietnam and ordained as a Buddhist monk at a young age of sixteen, Hanh has spent his life attempting to unify religion to form a peaceful world. In Peace is Every Step, Hanh uses his experience throughout his journeys to inform and enlighten readers about the breathing method known as conscious breathing, and the effects of that meditative force on the lives of individuals.

His first section, "Breathe! You are Alive," focuses on one's ability to live in the present moment, and be "mindful" of each action in daily life. Hanh teaches readers to live in the present through a breathing method called "conscious breathing," which allows the individual to calm him or herself, and focus on inner peace. By being aware of one's breathing, one can stop thinking of unimportant or negative aspects, and focus solely on happiness, harmony, and peace. Through smiling, conscious breathing, and various meditations designed to be preformed specifically during every day activities, rather than in a meditation room, Hanh teaches readers to walk the path of mindfulness.

In his second section, "Transformation and Healing," Hanh uses the techniques introduced in Section 1 to instruct readers on ways to heal and transform difficult, non-peaceful psychological states into productive, mindful states. By recognizing the feeling, becoming one with the feeling, calming the feeling, releasing the feeling, and deeply analyzing one's self, one is able to transform negative emotions into tools of self-discovery and mindfulness. By dealing with anger, jealousy, frustration, negative relationships, love, and compassion in this way, readers can learn to leave more peaceful, mindful lives.

In the final section, "Peace is Every Step," Hanh teaches readers the relationship between one's own inner peace and worldwide peace and harmony. According to Hanh, everything in the universe is interconnected. A piece of paper, for example, cannot exist without sunlight and trees, which cannot exist without soil and water, and so forth. Therefore, by encouraging and nurturing peace within ones self, one can then teach others to find their own peace, and use peaceful methods to reduce war, encourage environmentalism, become better citizens, develop more positive relationships, and become better human beings. According to Hanh, these processes, developed through conscious breathing and finding peace in every action, are the keys to world peace and harmony.