Logline

A child of divorce, Rachel Jensen has everything but a place to belong and long ago gave up hope and belief in Christmas miracles. When she is thrust into the lives of a reclusive man and a people struggling to save a dying town, she learns that sometimes to get a miracle you have to give one.

Synopsis

RACHEL JENSEN--(34) pretty, successful--is a child of divorce and cynical about life and family. Two weeks before Christmas, she arrives in the Adirondacks for her half-sister’s engagement party. (She is close to her half sister.)

Nothing has changed. Rachel’s hedge-fund manager father belittles her profession (party planner), and her social climbing stepmother questions whether she has come to ask for money. Eager to escape after the party, Rachel races a snow storm to the train station. When she encounters an accident on the interstate, she self detours to a country road where a deer darts across her path, causing her to swerve off the road and hit a tree. Disoriented, she walks for help and collapses unconscious in the snow.

Rachel wakes up in a strange bed to a guard dog (SAMPSON). The dog barks and MAC HENDERSON--(42) tall, dark, with a five o’clock shadow beard and hair on the shaggy side--appears. He favors a reclusive life. His manner is brusque, and he projects a humorless, intimidating presence.

Nothing good ever happens in a cabin in the woods, and Rachel fears the worst when she finds meat hangers in the barn, a lock on the freezer, and suggestive books in Mac’s bookcase. Her strange, wary manner towards him gives Mac to wonder if she may be off some meds. Just when Rachel is convinced that she’s a goner, she discovers that Mac is a divorced, retired homicide detective, seeking to escape the world. He lives off the land, hence the meat hangers and books.

Snowed in together for four days, Rachel makes friends with Sampson, and she and Mac “adjust” to each other. He gets her pain. Twenty years on the force, he has learned how to read people and knows something about family dynamics. And despite himself, he is amused by her quirkiness--she thinks there’s a Bigfoot in the woods. For Rachel, Mac is an intriguing contrast to the elite, supercilious young men in her world. (It doesn’t hurt that he’s ruggedly handsome.)

The roads are plowed. Rachel’s rental car is towed to Clearwaters. She rides into town with Mac and Sampson and sees a town in serious decline. Mac drops her off at the only B & B still in operation.

As Rachel waits for her car to be fixed, she gets to know the town and is amazed by how warmly people embrace her--a stranger. For the first time in her life, she doesn’t feel the need to prove herself to anyone.

In her exploration, Rachel finds that Clearwaters was once a beautiful, Victorian town and comes away determined to help save it. She thinks that, if restored, it would make a perfect historic Christmas destination. The irony is that she doesn’t like Christmas. She has no “snow globe” (happy) memory of one.

She comes up with a plan to restore the town in stages, with enough of it restored in time for next Christmas. But it depends upon her securing a grant from the State Preservation Committee. The town is enthusiastic; Mac isn’t. He tells her she is raising false expectations. Rachel feels hurt, angry, and determined to prove him wrong.

The grant is denied. Rachel desperately searches for another solution and remembers that HBTV (House Beautiful) has a popular show where the crew helps to restore towns. She turns to her good friend JOSH WOODBANKS, head writer for a prestigious travel magazine. Josh comes from old money, but, like Rachel, doesn’t buy into the elitism, though he isn’t shy about using it to his advantage to establish contacts. She asks him to get her an appointment with network executives so she can pitch Clearwaters to them. Josh does. HBTV agrees to take on the project.

The HBTV crew arrives in Clearwaters. Mac apologizes to Rachel and, experienced in construction, comes out of his cave to become the project manager. Along with the residents and HBTV crew, Mac and Rachel work closely together on projects. Mac wants to take their relationship further; Rachel is waiting for him to do so. But he isn’t sure that he’s ready for a new relationship. While he’s figuring it out, Josh pops up on Mac’s radar.

Clearwaters opens for Christmas to great success and widespread media coverage. Rachel’s father and stepmother see that she is something of a celebrity. When Mac sees Josh with Rachel, it prods him to act. He tells Rachel that Josh isn’t right for her (he knows how to read people). She informs Mac that perhaps he’s right--Josh is gay. (So much for his well-honed detective instincts.) In the end, Rachel gives over her company to her assistant and accepts the job of Events Director for Clearwaters--and Mac’s proposal of marriage. In addition to finding love and her place, Rachel has gotten her snow globe Christmas memory.

90 Second Written Pitch

The story is a drama with humorous undertones of love, redemption, self-reflection, and a redefinition of home, family, and the concept of miracles. It also carries the message: you can either wait for change or make it happen.

Rachel Jensen is a successful high-end party planner, but Christmas is her least favorite time of year. A child of divorce, she spent her Christmases at boarding school. At 34, she is estranged from her mother and has a distant relationship with her hedge fund manager father and social climbing stepmother, and is cynical about love, life, and family. She had long ago given up hope or belief in Christmas miracles. When she is stranded in an economically depressed town 4 days before Christmas, she is struck by the friendliness of the people. They have a motto: everyone is family. And Rachel instantly feels a sense of belonging. Thus, she is driven to help them save their town.

Using her contacts, vision, and ingenuity, she and the townspeople transform the Victorian town into an historic Christmas destination over the year against all odds. In the process, she and a traumatized retired detective find love as they help each other heal emotional scars.

The story comes full circle when her father's hedge fund collapses 2 days before the following Christmas. As a tonic, Rachel brings her despairing father and stepmother to Clearwaters, where they experience love and friendship that money can't buy. They self-reflect and restart their relationship with Rachel.