Mattie lives alone and is always available, and so she is the person the hotline always calls when they need a late-night pickup. And although according to protocol Mattie should take Alice and Oren to a local shelter, instead she brings them home for the night. She has plenty of room, she says. What she doesn't say is that Oren reminds her of her little brother, who died thirty years ago at the age of ten.

Mattie lives alone and is always available, and so she is the person the hotline always calls when they need a late-night pickup. And although according to protocol Mattie should take Alice and Oren to a local shelter, instead she brings them home for the night. She has plenty of room, she says. What she doesn't say is that Oren reminds her of her little brother, who died thirty years ago at the age of ten.

When Alice gets off a bus in the middle of a snowstorm in Delphi, NY, she is fleeing an abusive relationship and desperate to protect ten-year-old Oren. Though Alice is wary, Oren bonds nearly instantly with Mattie, a social worker in her fifties who lives in an enormous run-down house in the middle of the woods. Mattie is the person the hotline always calls when they need a late-night pickup. According to protocol Mattie should take Alice and Oren to a local shelter, but instead takes them to her house. Oren reminds her of her little brother, who died thirty years ago. As the snowstorm worsens around them, each woman's past will prove itself unburied, stirring up threats both within and without. -- adapted from back cover

A disabled shepherd boy and his mother are visited by three men on their way to see the Baby Jesus in Bethlehem.

The story of a crippled shepherd boy who entertained the Wise Men on their way to Bethlehem, of the simple gift he gave them for the Christ Child, and of the miraculous gift he received in return.

A social worker living alone in a run-down house in the woods offers shelter to a young boy and a woman fleeing an abusive relationship before their lives are threatened by dangerous secrets.

Jack and the boy receive a late-night visit from unique guests who love to play.