This document introduces Grails, a web framework based on Java, Groovy, Spring, and GORM. It discusses how Grails enables rapid development through scaffolding and plugins, supports modern browsers, and allows rendering objects to JSON and XML. The document also provides an overview of Groovy and its similarities to Java, and gives examples of Grails being used for real websites. It demonstrates installing Grails and creating a sample application to showcase features like services, controllers, domains, and parallel computing with GPars.