"Lured by a brochure his doctor gives him after informing him that his emphysema has left him with scarcely a year to live, 52-year-old Oswald T. Campbell abandons wintry Chicago for Lost River, Alabama, where he believes he’ll be spending his... show all last Christmas. Frances Cleverdon, one of four widows and three single women in town, hopes to fix him up with her sister, Mildred–if only Mildred wouldn’t keep dying her hair outrageous colors every few days. When Frances and Oswald become involved in the life of Patsy Casey, an abandoned young girl with a crippled leg, the townspeople and neighboring communities rally round shy, sweet Patsy as Christmas approaches."