Emma Holly is an overachiever on the fast track to success, but when she is passed over yet again for a promotion, she quits her job and heads home to spend Christmas with her father at the Holly Day Inn.

When she blows a tyre, a charming man, Oliver stops to help. Finally arriving home later, Emma finds there are no guests, and her father Ben seems to have lost his Christmas spirit. He tells her that he is running out of money and a large developer is pressing him to sell, so they can build a conference centre on the land. Emma is determined to save the inn, but she's not sure how.

In town, Emma and Ben stop by a café run by Molly, who has an obvious soft spot for Ben. While looking around the café, Emma runs into Oliver again. During their conversation, she makes an assumption that he is a travel writer and convinces him to stay at the inn and write an article to promote it. However, in reality he works for the developer and is really there to close the sale, a truth that he doesn't share. When he lets on that his family never really had any Christmas traditions, she makes it her mission to introduce him to as many as she can.