This book, not intended to be a grammar, is a comprehensive description of the major features of German in "linguistic" terms according to the principles of modern linguistics. It considers aspects of German phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, as well as varieties and discourse.
Some chapters are what the title implies, a description of the German language (the chapter on phonetics is a good example). The title is a little misleading, however, because some chapters are really an introduction to several fields of linguistics with German examples (the chapter called "German in use" is an introduction to pragmatics in general, not specifically German pragmatics).