The book starts with background information on Chinese phonology. Not technically grammar, but useful information. It then covers other topics such as word structure and then gets into sentence structure. Chapters include topics such as questions, negation, ba3, and bei4. Each chapter starts out with some heavy technical discussion combined with sample sentences. Once you wade through this you are usually rewarded with a practical section giving advice on how to use the grammatical feature being discussed. Having both the heavily technical part as well as the practical usage advice is what makes this book good.
The only thing lacking in the book are Chinese characters. All sample sentences are given in pinyin. I have focused more on spoken than written Chinese, so I don't actually read the characters that well, but I feel the meaning of words is much clearer when the characters are included. Having said this, the sample sentences include word-for-word English translation, so not having the characters is not a big problem. It just seems strange not having them.
Overall this is a detailed reference that is well worth getting.
