Deranged links ecological explorations with moments of individual maturation in nineteen essays that braid natural history and memoir.

On one level, Deranged investigates salient environmental topics such as Colony Collapse Disorder, forest fragmentation, the near-extinction of Britain's Large Blue Butterfly, altruism, the evolution of walking in early humans, and the threat of another mass extinction.

But interwoven is a woman's coming-of-age, an exploration of the process of accepting childlessness while at the same time developing a sense of place in the Midwest. Deranged explores the mutability of where we believe we belong, and who we believe we are.