Susan, Amanda's mother, works to adjust to life without her daughter around, while dealing with the disintegration of her family and her less than satisfactory job as a lawyer in a large law firm.

Amanda revels in the freedom of university life away from her over-protective mom, while Susan feels adrift as her attempts to fill Amanda's absence with romance and ambition prove disappointing. When Amanda joins a religious commune, drawn in by its seductive promise of certainty and love, Susan fears she has lost Amanda to a cult.

Crosswind is a compelling weave of Amanda's and Susan's intertwined stories that show the appeal and danger of living in a closed community with a charismatic leader and the fraught relationship of a mother and daughter looking for a safe place to call home.