When Elfrida Philips abandons London for a quaint country village, she settles in quickly. She is very poor, but has a tiny cottage, her four-legged friend Horace, and friendships of good neighbors, Oscar, Gloria, and their little girl. Tragedy upsets her newfound tranquillity, and she takes refuge in a rambling house with a new gentleman friend in Corrydale. Like a magnet, Corrydale attracts various waifs and strays, each of them escaping difficult personal pasts. As the holidays come aroundand the weather turns foul, the scene seems set as a perfect recipe for disaster. But the group proves to be greater than the sum of its ill-fitting parts, and as the solstice passes, and as Christmas approaches, the healing power of love, even on the most troubled human spirit, begins to work its magic.