Holly and Mark Jepson have always spent Christmas on the Somerset coast, where Mark's uncle entertains a motley collection of guests in his holiday chalets. This year, they long to do something different - until Mark's uncle has to go into hospital, and they are obliged to put aside their plans for a quiet Christmas on their own.
Instead they prepare to welcome the various members of the party - young and old, couples, children and old ladies, an eccentric artist and his handsome daughter (but is she really his daughter, the others wonder?), a young married pair expecting their first baby, to the secret envy of the childless Holly, and a wife escaping from a violent past. They are all, in their separate ways, to play a part in the unexpected, and at times shattering, events which take place before the new year dawns.
As the first fireworks of the year fall into the sea in a shower of silver stars, both guests and hosts at this wintry gathering look forward to a new and better world.
