Crystal Hagan runs Christmas in Moonstone, Wisconsin: thirteen first-graders, one live Nativity creche, and a caribou named Rudolph who is, until this morning, the most beloved animal in a town of three hundred. Then someone kidnaps her reindeer. The boot tracks lead straight to the North Pole, the grand old mansion on the town Square where Henri LeBarron has been a recluse for five years, and where his estranged son Peter has just returned from Phoenix. Peter is tall, confident, and entirely infuriating. He admits to the kidnapping. He refuses to give Rudolph back. And the ransom he demands has nothing to do with money. Crystal shows up with her donkey, her wanted fliers, and a chocolate pudding cake, still warm from the oven. What she did not plan for was Peter LeBarron himself. Crystal Hagan came to the North Pole for a reindeer. She did not know that was the least interesting thing inside.