Joe is a children s book writer and illustrator in L.A. in the second year of major writer s block. His girlfriend, impatient with his lack of progress, gets bitchy, so he breaks off the relationship and agrees to accompany her brother to a small town in Wisconsin where stalwarts jump in Lake Michigan on Christmas morning. The house where they stay is isolated, and when Joe s pal is hospitalized with a badger bite, Joe is on his own. He befriends a local hermit, is attracted to the man s granddaughter, and must deal with the local sheriff s dislike of anyone from out of town. Plus, the sheriff is the young woman s dad - with a gun. Christmas approaches and things get complicated.