In trying to recreate the Cro-Magnon world, Auel includes many natural details, such as descriptions of plants, soil, weather, animal life, and the formation and movement of glaciers. This information, while often interesting, has a tendency to overwhelm the simple story. The problem of excessive detail is also complicated by Auel's prose style, which sometimes runs out of control, allowing the details to overcome the sense of the sentence.

One technique Auel frequently employs in The Plains of Passage to create tension is the use of dream sequences.

Italicized blocks of material indicate Ayla's dreams, which, on a vaguely symbolic level, warn her of future events. The dreams are not exact representations of what will happen, but they leave Ayla (and, Auel seems to hope, the reader) with a sense of uneasiness.