Plain and basic Amy receives news that suddenly turns her world upside down. Together with her outspoken and bold Sister Mary, the pair embark on a mission to set things right in the world and reconnect their once lost bond along the way.
John's struggle to provide is bolstered by the childlike faith of his son who considers the meaning of Christmas. After a stagecoach rider visits Christmas eve, John must believe that troubles are temporary, and miracles can happen.
Thirty-year-old Emmett LeClere, a former logger and recovering drug addict, returns from school in New York to make a film in his Olympic Peninsula hometown. To finance the project, he decides to grow marijuana with an old buddy. After an abbreviated affair with an ex-girlfriend ends in a drug binge, Emmett finds a promising but doomed new romance. Countering good intentions with dishonesty, Emmett is soon left questioning his place in the world.
The grunge girl band "No Exits" is just about to get a record deal. At this time Jimmy is appearing again, the former boy-friend of the band guitarist Shelly. She had left him because his friend had raped her. But he doesn't know that - up to now. Shelly has fallen in love with the band singer Suzy in the meantime. But she still loves Jimmy, too. So she moves to him again, what Suzy doesn't like that all. Especially because she is becoming a feminist.
When Sam Baldwin's wife dies, he is left to bring up his eight-year-old son Jonah alone, and decides to move to Seattle to make a new start. On Christmas Eve, Jonah rings a radio phone-in with his Christmas wish to find a new wife for his dad. Meanwhile in Baltimore, journalist Annie Reed, who is having doubts about her own relationship, is listening in.
