The manuscript begins with five books closely following the first five books of Fordun as given in Bower, followed by 15 chapters of Book VI, somewhat abridged from Bower, Book VI, chapters 9-23 nearly as compiled by Fordun. This is followed by the rest of Book VI and by five more books, being an abridgement of Scotichronicon, though at variance with it on some points, and introducing much original matter.

The manuscript is a copy, made probably in the early 16th century, of MS Glasgow College F.6.14, a late 15th-century transcript of an original compiled in 1461.

It is inscribed `Willeslaeus 1632` followed by a motto in Greek (folio 152 verso).

Neither this nor any other copy has a title, but `Liber Pluscardensis` has been adopted as the title (following two references to the work in the tenth book of ‘Rerum Scoticarum Historia’) since W F Skene deduced that the work had originally been compiled in 1461 at the command of the Abbot of Dunfermline by Maurice Buchanan, who had retired to Pluscarden Priory, then a cell of Dunfermline Abbey, and who had previously been treasurer of Margaret, Princess of Scotland, Dauphiness of France.