Introduction : Female flight ; Heroines, freedom, and captivity ; Transcendence and immanence ; Shape-shifting

Earth, sky, women, and immortality : Earth, sky, and birds ; Magical flight, ascension, and assumption ; Dreams, women, and flying ; Humans, divinities, and birds : Apotheosis; Birds; Bird goddesses

Part I. Supernatural women : Winged goddesses of sexuality, death, and immortality : Isis ; Women, death, sexuality, and immortality ; The ancient Near East ; Ancient Greece : Athena and the monstrous-feminine; Aphrodite; Nike

The fall of the Valkyries : Brunhilde in the Volsungs saga ; Images and meanings ; Brunhilde in the Nibelungenlied ; Wagner's Brunhilde

Swan maidens: captivity and sexuality : Urvaśī ; Images and meanings ; Northern European tales : Tchaikovsky's Swan lake ; Asian swan maidens : Feather robes and dance ; Two Middle Eastern tales : Hasan of Basra; Janshah

Angels and fairies: male flight and contrary females : Angels and demons ; Fairies : Morgan le Fay; Fairy brides; Asian fairies

Apsarās: enabling male immortality, part 1 : In Hinduism : Relations with heroes; Seducing ascetics; Kings, Devadāsīs, and fertility ; In Buddhism : Seductresses; The Saundarānanda

Yoginīs and ḍākinīs: enabling male immortality, part 2 : Tantra ; Yoginīs : Yoginī temples; Practices and stories; Sexual yoga; Taming ; Ḍākinīs : Subduing; Tibetan practitioners

Part II. Human women : Witches and succubi: male sexual fantasies : Medea ; Ancient witches and sexuality : Circe; The witch of Endor ; Succubi and Incubi ; Witches in Christian Europe : The Witches' sabbath; Women and the demonic; Flying

Women shamans: fluctuations in female spiritual power : The Nišan shaman ; Becoming a shaman ; Magical flight, ritual dress, and spirit animals ; Gender ; Transvestism and sex change ; Sexuality

Flying mystics, or the exceptional woman, part I : St. Christian the astonishing ; Flight and sanctity : St. Irene of Chrysobalanton; St. Elisabeth of Schönau ; Female and male mystics : Hadewijch of Brabant

Flying mystics, or the exceptional woman, part II : Islam : Rābi'ah al-'Adawiyya; Other aerial Ṣūfī women ; Daoism : Sun Bu'er; Daoist beliefs and practices ; Buddhism : Human ḍākinīs; Machig Lapdron and Chod practice

The aviatrix: nationalism, women, and heroism : Wonder Woman ; Amelia Earhart : Death and the heroine ; Hanna Reitsch ; Women, heroism, and militarism

Conclusion : The exceptional woman ; Women and war.