In Civil War-era Massachusetts, the peace and contentment of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's family circle was tragically broken, prompting him to write the classic poem "Christmas Bells." In this novel, the author of Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker and the Elm Creek Quilts books re-creates that time, then turns to present-day Boston, where school teacher Sophia learns that her music program has been sacrificed to budget cuts. Worried for her underprivileged students as much as for herself, she tries to forget her cares by leading a children's choir for a Christmas Eve concert. As they rehearse a carol set to a poem by Longfellow, the words he penned so long ago move Sophia to new hope.