For the second Christmas in a row, Boston bank employee Katherine Moss has decided that she and Will, her preteen son, will not go home to the military town of Provincetown, Virginia, for the holidays as the memories of her now deceased husband, musician Tyler Moss, who, like many in town, was once in the military but was killed in a traffic accident two years ago, are too strong there. Kat and Will now do not talk to each other about Tyler, each believing they shielding the other from the painful memories associated with his death. Not returning home is also despite Kat once having dreamed about taking over the family business, Winter’s Pastries, a bakery where she and Tyler spent much of their time together as they were dating. At the last minute, Kat changes her mind, feeling it is indeed time to go home. Upon their return to Provincetown, Kat discovers not only that the annual Christmas Snowball Dance is still happening, but that Tyler’s former band-mate in a trio, Maggie Rhodes, has resurrected the combo with someone that Maggie found by posting an ad through the VA Centre to fill in for Tyler, they to perform at the dance like they used to. The hired musician is Jack Sutherland, a vet like Tyler who Kat and Will had earlier met on the train to town, and who, never having been in Provincetown before, stated to them he has come to see an unnamed friend. The human connection made between Kat and Jack, the first for Kat since Tyler, is punctuated with Tyler’s true mission in Provincetown, he wanting to return what is an obvious memento to someone he met only briefly years ago, that person, whose name he doesn’t even know, who saved his life.