Lark Rise and Candleford are transformed into magical places as the inhabitants prepare for festivities. Some of the residents find themselves driven to speak difficult truths amid the gift giving and carol singing, however, as loyalties are tested with the arrival of a ragged, bare-footed young women who goes by the name of Cinderella DoeWho is this beguiling and hypnotic woman and why is she searching for a man who died over 80 years ago? Is she the one who opens up the old family wound when Dorcas and Emma each want to give Laura the same gift for Christmas and Laura finds herself torn between two mothers? Is it the same kind of ghostly or other-wordly menace that drives Cinderella Doe to create havoc, or is it just a yearning for home, family and belonging?