Two days before Christmas, ornery Elliot Ebberts is tasked with school drop-off even though distracted by an important real estate transaction. In the holiday carpool chaos his extravagant, lucky coat goes missing. In a panic, he searches for it, tracing its path as it passes through the hands of good people in dire situations. Meanwhile, his plan to wow his wife Libby with an ostentatious gift reveals Elliot’s shallowness to the world and mortifies his entire family. Is it too late for him to rediscover the meaning of Christmas?

2019: Donora, Pennsylvania: Ninety-one-year-old Patryk Rusek hides in his attic, hoping the searchers think he’s escaped. When Lucy finally bursts in, she discovers her beloved grandfather clutching a fat, hand-drawn, antique book. In it is the story of Donora, the town that shaped America, its people, and Patryk himself. 1910: Donora, Pennsylvania: Mary Lancos lives in a home on the hill overlooking town and its mighty Monongahela River. Shy Pole Lukasz Musial arrives in Donora seeking the clear blue skies, green lawns, and better life he’d seen pictured on a postcard.

Jupiter is rising when Stanisław Franciszek Musiał is born on November 21, 1920, and the midwife predicts he will live an extraordinary life. Young Stanley’s physical talents show themselves at the Polish Falcons and on the baseball field. When the Depression hits and the mills close, tension grips every Donora household. Meanwhile, as Stan matures, he draws attention from the press, college coaches, and professional baseball scouts. Suddenly his singular dream is set against options he’d never imagined. Even with the talent to achieve his goals, doubt creeps in.

With the rest of her family on a cruise, Lindsay Calhoun will be spending her first Christmas alone, so she volunteers to plan an especially festive holiday party for her company. Her coworkers are grateful—except for tall, quiet Jack Taylor. Jack has always been a loner, but something about Christmas puts him in an unusually foul mood.

In the mill town of Donora, Pennsylvania, site of the infamous 1948 "killing smog", headstrong nurse Rose Pavlesic tends to her family and neighbors. Controlling and demanding, she's created a life that reflects everything she missed growing up as an orphan. She's even managed to keep her painful secrets hidden from her loving husband, dutiful children, and large extended family.