Lawrence Wetherhold is a recently widowed literature professor who is a numb and chilly intellectual. He rebuffs his students, ignores his own teenage children, James and Vanessa, and spurns cries for financial assistance from his ne'er-do-well but rather soulful adopted brother, Chuck. After an accident and Lawrence goes to the hospital, he is deprived of the right to drive. Janet is a physician and former student of Lawrence who remembers her disappointment...

Doug and Louise have been married for many years, but their marriage began to grow cold after their teenage daughter was killed in a car accident. When Doug goes to New Orleans to attend a convention, he meets Mallory, a teenage stripper/prostitute who is on a path to self-destruction. Doug decides to help her whether she appreciates it or not. This act will help to heal his marriage.

Two neighbors in a small New England town go to war when one of them decides to decorate his house with so many Christmas lights that they are visible from space. The neighborhood is turned upside down as the families try to discover the true meaning of Christmas.

Russell Baz leads a dead-end life- he works a meaningless steel mill job all day, and cares for his terminally ill father at night. When Russell's brother Rodney returns home from Iraq, he is lured into one of the Northeast's most ruthless crime rings and mysteriously disappears. When the police fail to solve the case, Russell puts his life at risk in order to seek justice for his brother.