Emily Warwick, mayor of the charming village of Cape Light on the New England coast, struggles to deal with a lot of conflicting feelings as she tries to develop a relationship with Sara, the child she gave up for adoption twenty years earlier; creates a deepening bond with newspaper publisher Dan Forbes; and worries about Reverend Ben, whose crisis of faith is keeping him from offering counsel.

"Christmas is always the most peaceful time in Cape Light. The snow-covered cottages and gleaming lights make the seaside hamlet look like everyone's favorite Christmas card. But there is more magic and wonder that usual this year. For as Mayor Emily Warwick jogs through town she discovers an abandoned baby girl lying in the creche of the nativity set outside the Church...Emily gets temporary custody of Baby Jane and begins to wonder: Was she meant...

The holiday season is upon the townspeople of Cape Light, and the village has a special guest. James Cameron, a minister who runs a mission in Central America, has decided to make a trip to Cape Light to work with Reverend Ben and spend some time with its warmhearted residents

As the citizens of Cape Light deck the halls for a Christmas to remember, the curmudgeonly Lillian Warwick has been confined to her bed with pneumonia. Cared for by her daughters, Emily and Jessica, she lets her thoughts drift back to the holiday season of 1955, to the magical time when she first met Oliver Warwick-the dashing man who would become her husband. Back then, Lillian was beautiful, spirited, and idealistic, and Oliver was a wonderful man...

Mayor Emily Warwick is plagued by the challenges of a re-election campaign, the demands of her elderly mother, her sister's upcoming marriage to a man her mother does not like, the death of her husband, and the guilt of giving her child up for adoption.

Sam and Jessica Morgan's holiday joy turns to tragedy when they lose their house to a fire just before Christmas, while single mother Julie Newton and her young daughter, in desperate need of a roof over their heads, turn to widower Jack Baxter for help

During a scarlet fever outbreak in 1906, thirteen-year-old Lizabeth must decide whether it is more important to be Strawberry Queen or to be at the bedside of her younger sister, who is ill.

In 1906, mortified by her mother's suffragist activities that cause the family to move from New York City to Cape Light, fourteen-year-old Rose sees no value in her mother's feminist views until she tries to enter a horse riding competition open only to boys.

While living in Cape Light during the years 1904 to 1906, thirteen-year-old Amanda struggles to obey her widowed father's orders not to see the boy she loves, despite her angry resentment of her parent's courtship of a local widow.