In the days leading up to Christmas, 1948, two opposites find a lot more attraction than either of them bargained for...and plenty of love to keep them warm.
Vivacious socialite Dottie Vance is determined to endure her family's forced Christmas cheer and deep well of disapproval before retreating to her life as a successful, albeit anonymous, fashion writer. But her resolve turns to ice when she arrives at her childhood home to find preparations underway for a raucous, week-long holiday house party, complete with overnight guests-and her family's insistent attempts to matchmake her with a dreadful square of a man.
Henry Marston would love it if people stopped thinking of him as a bit of a square. Sure, he's no Gregory Peck, but as lead artist at his family's greeting card business, he's ready to take his work to the next level, especially given their new partnership with the Vance's Department Store chain. A week of playing nice with their hosts should give him the chance he needs to convince his father to listen to his ideas...if not for the man's embarrassing scheme with the Vances to set him up with a frivolous woman he's clearly not suited to.
Convinced their families' grand plans for a business-plus-romance consolidation will fail spectacularly once they show everyone how much they can't stand being in the same room, Dottie and Henry forge an unlikely alliance. To survive their week of fake snow and jingling bells, they'll put on a show of roasting each other's chestnuts and stepping on each other's mistletoes. Except that in between parlor games and talent shows-not to mention trysts in kitchen pantries, library closets, and pool houses-the pair discover that, despite their fierce aversion to their relatives being right, they might just be one another's perfect Christmas present after all.