Hester Randal, believing it was the right thing to do, gave up parental rights to her infant Pearl. Heartbroken and penniless with no place else to go, she returned to the deserted and half-demolished Pleasant Palms Trailer Park in South Florida. She has to get her life back on track in order to one day return to Pearl. At first, she finds solace in the isolated and neglected park. There is a wild beauty to the place that she begins to appreciate. But this reprieve from her sorrow and regret is only temporary. The young manager of the Silver Nugget Flea Market and Pearl's father, Jimmy Raymer and his wife Cecilia promised to keep Hester apprised of her infant's progress, but weeks pass without a word. As Hester's anxiety mounts, her world again begins to unravel. A check the Raymer's gave her bounces, her van breaks down, she can't find a job. But worst of all, there's no way for her to get back to her child. When it appears nothing more can go wrong, one man returns to Pleasant Palms. This is a bad omen. If all of the residents come back and rebuild the trailer park, Hester will most likely get thrown out. After all, she was the one who buried her dead student's body under the Bo tree by her patio, and when the body was discovered by the developer, he quickly canned the deal costing the owners millions. No one will forgive Hester. Even if they did, she has no money to pay the assessments. Hester, on the edge of disaster, struggles to maintain her equilibrium. So many people she trusted turned their backs on her, including her old friend Eric Longstreet, a regular at the flea market. She'd always believed he would keep in touch with her and keep an eye on Pearl. Disappointment mounts. The man who has returned to the park seems friendly enough, but have Hester's instincts ever been right? Hester seems caught between a rock and a hard place. Desiring to transcend her troubles, she turns to her new copy of Walden. She tries to write poetry, but all the while her spirit is wandering into deep and turbulent waters. Will she lose herself in the wave of troubles coming right at her, or will she be able to turn it all around with the tonic of wildness? Though With the Tonic of Wildness is the last in the Dangerous Things Trilogy, it can be read as a stand alone novel.