When Elfrida Philips abandons London for a quaint countryvillage, she settles in quickly. She is very poor, but has a tinycottage, her four-legged friend Horace, and friendships ofgood neighbors, Oscar, Gloria, and their little girl.Tragedy upsets her newfound tranquillity, and she takes refuge in arambling house with a new gentleman friend in Corrydale. Like amagnet, Corrydale attracts various waifs and strays, each of themescaping difficult personal pasts. As the holidays come aroundand theweather 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 healingpower of love, even on the most troubled human spirit, begins to workits magic.