The author looks to gain an understanding into the relationships that the British Virgin Islands and Faroe Islands each respectively has with the countries on which they remain "dependent"- those being the United Kingdom and Denmark. This title looks to explain what the issues are in each of these relationships and see how they have changed over the recent decades. The book focuses on the ability that each of these territories has to assert themselves and in what ways they remain at the mercy of other states to control their destinies.