The author repeatedly visits a dozen trees around the world to stop, listen, and look, exploring each tree's connections with webs of fungi, bacterial communities, cooperative and destructive animals, and other plants, and demonstrating how the lives of trees and people are deeply interwoven. Several trees, including a balsam fir in Ontario and an Amazonian ceibo, are located in areas that seem mostly natural, but which are affected by industrial development and climate change. Haskell also turns to trees in places where humans seem to have subdued "nature"--A pear tree on a Manhattan sidewalk, an olive tree in Jerusalem -- demonstrating that wildness permeates every location.

Preface -- Part 1 -- Ceibo -- Balsam fir -- Sabal palm -- Green ash -- Interlude : mitsumata -- Part 2 -- Hazel -- Redwood and ponderosa pine -- Interlude : Maple -- Part 3 -- Cottonwood -- Callery pear -- Olive -- Japanese white pine.