Before ambitious heiress Ellen Langford can inherit her father's gift business, she must deliver a special Christmas card to her dad's former partner in Snow Falls, the hometown she never knew. When a snowstorm strands her at the town inn, she's forced to work for her keep, and in the process, finds romance and discovers the true gift of Christmas.

Carter (Thomas Jane), a troubled veteran, gets a chance at redemption by protecting a 12 year-old girl from an assassin (Laurence Fishburne) after she witnesses a murder. Holding a shotgun with a single shell, he engages in physical and psychological warfare in a desperate fight for the girl's life.

Ben Gold gets the break of his life as aspiring author, but must stay home with his kids, Luke and Madison, to make his 5 months deadline. His feminist wife, workaholic fashion executive Alex, selfishly decides to take in promising rebel designer Zoe Miller, who left her boyfriend Trey. The teenager soon wins the family's hearts.

Widowed, successful Californian sports journalist King is a great catch. His pride and joy, son David, suddenly says he gave up baseball, and hence his scholarship. Actually he's leaving college, aspiring arts school. King finds out trough his lover, hearts columnist Peyton McGruder. She refuses to commit to marriage, rather concentrating on trying to catch up after finding Christine, the daughter she gave up as fickle young mother. A reader's letter inviting her to exchange stories on unconditional passion and true love sets Peyton thinking, just when King gets a dream job offer in New york.

Four high school football stars enlist in the Marines and head off to fight in the war in Iraq. When one of them is killed and another wounded, they return home only to find is extremely difficult to pick up the threads of their old lives. The memories of events in Iraq combined with the lack of public support pushes many of these men to the breaking point.