Lured by the image of a snow globe and the promise of sanctuary within, a wealthy 28-year old Bostonian leaves her boyfriend, her Master's program and her family to spend the winter taking care of her great aunt Beatrice who has fallen and broken her shoulder. In a white wooden cottage in the woods, among clocks and carpets and a lifetime of things collected and now gone forgotten, she begins to bare witness to her aunt's slow demise and to find her place in this tiny town. But it is through her relationship with the plow guy, Rusty, and her job at the Tidy Diner that she realizes her initial need for space, and what she thought was just going to be a break from her life, is at its roots a call for transformation, not only for herself, but for those with whom her life is now interwoven.