While all her childhood friends are getting married and having children, Thelma Taylor can’t seem to find a beau in all of Hartford, Vermont. When she loses her employment and is swamped with frustration, her mother agrees: it’s time she started over, somewhere new.
The mail order bride agency in town is the answer. Before a month goes by, she’s engaged to James McCoy, a widower in Colorado with two children. Despite her apprehension, Thelma sets out for her new home, hoping to be happy and settled by Christmas.
But from the moment she steps off the train, she’s taken aback. James insists they marry at once. His two children avoid her and play mean pranks on her. How can she be happy with her new family when she feels like an unwanted outsider?
Thelma knows these things take time. But as tensions mount with her new stepchildren, and her relationship with her husband changes by the day, she can’t help but think her goal of “happy and settled by Christmas” will never be reached. Will a secret of her own be the key to it all?
