Storyline

In the lead-up to Christmas, Chicago investment banker Nick Bellwith is fired for an investment decision he made for his biggest client, which negated all the money he made for them and his company in the past, and he was let go instead of being promoted to junior partner as he was expecting. He's hesitant to tell his world-traveling father Sydney, who seems to value financial success more than anything. Seeing Nick walk by looking crushed, aging Clem Marshwell, owner of the Star Top Christmas-tree lot, offers him a temporary minimum-wage job assisting with the heavy lifting at the lot. Despite not being a Christmas person since his mother's death when he was a child, Nick accepts without telling Clem anything about his situation. For many of the regulars who have bought their trees at the lot over its 30 years, it's an especially painful year. Clem himself recently lost his wife Grace, and this year might also be his last as the lot property is being redeveloped. And Julie Gibbons, 7th-grade science teacher and single adoptive mom to Matt, lost her father this year (her parents fell in love-at-first-sight at the lot). Clem has become good friends with Julie and Matt. Despite believing the bills covered by insurance, Julie is financially strapped in dealing with her father's medical payments, so she's not sure she can afford Christmas for Matt this year. Spending time with this collective might give Nick a clearer picture of what he wants to do with his life as he starts to fall for Julie, but their road to a happy ending might hit a sharp bump: Nick has a connection to Julie's financial problems.—Huggo