The document discusses the Objective-C runtime and how it manages classes, methods, and memory behind the scenes in Objective-C and Swift applications. It provides an overview of common runtime functions like looking up classes and selectors, storing associated objects, accessing ivars and properties, enumerating classes and methods. It also discusses more advanced runtime services like adding and replacing methods, forwarding invocations, changing an object's class, and creating new classes. Examples are given of how often typical iOS apps use various runtime functions.