diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f3c7528..9f710a0 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,4 +1,48 @@
-Ficdown.js
-==========
+# Ficdown.js
 
-Ficdown parser and runner in Javascript
+Ficdown is a system for building interactive fiction using MarkDown syntax, and Ficdown.js is a Javascript library for presenting Ficdown stories interactively in a web browser. See [Ficdown.com](http://www.ficdown.com/) for more information.
+
+## Dependencies
+
+Ficdown.js uses [jQuery](http://jquery.com) for DOM manipulation and [PageDown](https://code.google.com/p/pagedown/) to convert MarkDown into HTML.
+
+## Usage
+
+You can obtain *ficdown.js* or *ficdown.min.js* from the latest version on the [releases](https://github.com/rudism/Ficdown.js/releases) page. Assuming you've uploaded it to your web server along with a Ficdown story file named *story.md*, your HTML document would look something like this:
+
+```html
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>My Ficdown Story</title>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+    <!-- This container will be used by Ficdown.js to present the story -->
+    <div id="main"></div>
+
+    <!-- include Ficdown.js dependencies from CDNs -->
+    <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.1.1.min.js"></script>
+    <script src="http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/pagedown/1.0/Markdown.Converter.min.js"></script>
+    <script src="http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/pagedown/1.0/Markdown.Sanitizer.min.js"></script>
+
+    <!-- include locally hosted Ficdown.js -->
+    <script src="ficdown.min.js"></script>
+
+    <script>
+      // retrieve the Ficdown source file story.md via ajax
+      $.get('story.md', function(data){
+
+        // after retrieving the file, parse it
+        story = parseText(data);
+
+        // after parsing the story, load it into the div with id='main'
+        player = new Player(story, 'main');
+        player.play();
+
+      }, 'text');
+    </script>
+  </body>
+</html>
+```
+
+You will probably want to do some styling to make the story look better. For an example stylesheet, see the example included in the Ficdown.js repository at [/src/example/player.styl](/src/example/player.styl).
