Duncton Wood and the subsequent novels in the series revolve around the moles that inhabit the United Kingdom. The mole communities (referred to as "Moledom") are anthropomorphically portrayed as intelligent societies with their own social organization, history and written form of communication. The extent of animal personification is not unlike that of Richard Adams' Watership Down, to which Horwood's series is often favourably compared[citation needed], in that the moles are limited to the physical behaviours of their real-world burrow-dwelling counterparts, and neither wear clothing nor exhibit any special technological aptitude.

The central focus of the Duncton series is the Stone, a fictitious mole religion based on the standing stones and stone circles of Britain. As such, the novels are predominantly set in and around locales known for their megaliths, such as Avebury and Rollright. The titular wood itself is fictional, inspired by Wittenham Clumps and Wytham Woods (both near Oxford where the author was living when he wrote the first book) and borrowing its name from a village in West Sussex.

In the course of the books, individual moles travel great distances quite quickly (Duncton Wood in Oxfordshire to Siabod in Wales and back again for example).