It's turning out to be a pretty rotten Christmas for the Saunders family. Having just moved to a new city from Los Angeles, they have no friends, no money and, with the exception of the bright-eyed Mary, no Christmas spirit. To make matters worse, their mother is stuck in L.A., stranded by airline overbookings. So, the Christmas shopping duties fall on Dad and the gloomy kids. Things start looking a bit more like Christmas when 12-year old Brian and 6-year old Mary find a satchel of money at the local mall and they launch a Yuletide shopping spree...that is, until the crooks who counterfeited the money chase them through the mall packed with holiday shoppers.

In the Autumn of 1960, a fluke atmospheric weather condition allows a young teenager, Parry Tender, to receive a radio broadcast from New York City. Nestled in the Northern town of Goose Lake, Saskatchewan, Parry believes the contest the New York radio D.J. is running may be his ticket out of town, and away from a life to which he feels he never belonged. When Debbie Baxter, a young girl from California, arrives in the town by way of her father's position with the military, Parry soon discovers love, loss, and the magic of rock and roll.

Beneath the Alaskan landscape, the melting permafrost is about to drastically alter the tranquil scenery. As the permafrost thaws, underground rivers of volatile liquid Methane are created, causing a succession of violent and destructive earthquakes. It's a race against time to stop the deadly rivers before they lead to a catastrophic explosion that threatens the planet.