Secrecy is essential for a variety of emerging wireless applications where distributed confidential information is communicated in a multilevel network from sources to destinations. Network secrecy can be accomplished by exploiting the intrinsic properties of multilevel wireless networks (MWN). This paper introduces the concept of distributed network secrecy (DNS) and develops a framework for the design and analysis of secure, reliable, and efficient MWNs. Our framework accounts for node spatial distribution, multilevel cluster formation, propagation medium, communication protocol, and energy consumption. This research provides a foundation for DNS and offers a new perspective on the relationship between DNS and network lifetime.