Eloise Garrett is single, about sixty, and staring down retirement without family to share the holidays, and she has decided Christmas is overpriced, overhyped, and not for her.
Hoping a winter stay in the seaside village of Honeycombe Bay will be anything but festive, she lands at the guest house of widower Bartholomew Knott, who has grown more Scrooge than Santa since his wife's death.
When someone who hates decking the halls just as much as he does gets in touch, Bart opens the place to guests trying to dodge the season, including a heartbroken teacher who only wants a break.
Christmas refuses to stay quiet: after a fire ruins a single mother's holiday, Bart shelters her and her child, and Eloise ends up playing Mrs. Claus to his Santa, with the teacher pulled in as well.
Between a small town that is all in for the holidays, forced proximity at the B&B, and two romances—a later-in-life love story and a grumpy-and-sunshine pairing that involves the single mom—the house fills with carols, cocoa, and unwanted cheer.
The people hiding out at Honeycombe Bay still have to face whether escaping Christmas means shutting it out or finally letting it in.
