Within the first lines of What Binds Us, both the frailty and necessity of human connection is exposed. Unspoken pains lie at the heart of a family's dynamic. Cheryl Wilder pushes beyond her family's silence in order to understand the point where relationships break down. We first see this demonstrated by the strained relationship between her mother and grandmother. These lessons aren't easily learned. After a failed marriage and still in her twenties, it's in caring for her son where Wilder begins to see the intertwining roles of mother, daughter, wife, and individual woman. Here, Wilder begins to build her own family foundation. When she finds new love, he's able to add support and structure to what she has already built for her and her son. What Binds Us is about family and how we're bound to people, place, and ultimately ourselves.