This volume is an introduction to inner model theory, an area of set theory which is concerned with fine structural inner models reflecting large cardinal properties of the set theoretic universe.

The monograph contains a detailed presentation of general fine structure theory as well as a modern approach to the construction of small core models, namely those models containing at most one strong cardinal, together with some of their applications. The final part of the book is devoted to a new approach encompassing large inner models which admit many Woodin cardinals.

The exposition is self-contained and does not assume any special prerequisities, which should make the text comprehensible not only to specialists but also to advanced students in Mathematical Logic and Set Theory.