This anthology contains the most affecting, finely wrought essays, memoirs, and fiction by women writing on madness. Some of the selections are literary classics, such as the excerpt from Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar while some are taken from contemporary works such as Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted. Several of the essays appear for the first times.

All of these works offer powerful insights into the largely private world of suffering, and at the same time possess the elements of great literature. As a collection, these voices provide a diverse and remarkable chronicle of women struggling with madness.