The Christmas Secret

The film opens with Christine Eisley, a single mother of two children, Zach and Haley, struggling to make ends meet in the town of Wilsonville. Her life is a series of misfortunes: her car is unreliable, she is behind on rent to her landlord Ed, and her ex-husband Brad is a constant source of stress, eventually filing for custody of the children. While driving to her waitressing job, Christine discovers an elderly woman, Judy, having a heart attack in her car. Christine performs CPR and calls 911, saving Judy's life, but the delay causes her to be late for work, and her unsympathetic boss, Rod, fires her. In the chaos of the rescue, Christine loses a precious star-shaped locket, her only connection to her deceased mother and the father she never knew. Christine manages to find a new job at Betty's Bakery, where the owner, Betty, takes a liking to her. Meanwhile, Judy's husband Marshall and grandson Jason—a former Wall Street analyst who has returned home after being laid off—are desperate to find the woman who saved Judy. Jason and Christine have several 'meet-cute' encounters, though Christine initially suspects Jason is a spy hired by her ex-husband to build a case against her. As they spend more time together, Jason helps Zach with baseball and bonds with Christine over their shared feeling of being 'lost' in life. The plot thickens when Haley falls and is taken to the same hospital where Judy is recovering. Judy, having found the locket in her belongings (placed there by paramedics), gives it to Haley as a gift, not realizing it belongs to Christine. When Christine sees the locket on Haley, she is stunned. The mystery is fully resolved when Betty sees the locket and recognizes it; she had given it to her son, Dennis, before he died at sea years ago. It is revealed that Dennis was Christine's father, making Betty her grandmother. In the climax, Jason prevents Brad from illegally taking the children from daycare, and the legal issues are resolved when the family services worker sees the strong community support for Christine. The film concludes on Christmas Eve with the revelation of Christine's true parentage, Jason deciding to stay in Wilsonville to run the family business, and the entire group celebrating as a newly formed family.