When her brother is killed in Iraq, Abbie Staley's world is shattered. The eighteen-year-old college student finds her rural Alabama values torn asunder, altering her views on religion as well as the issue of abortion. But then a stranger comes to visit her at her home in the crossroads community of Winter Chapel. Another visit follows at the college campus. The stranger knows much about her life, and that of her brother, so much that at first she is terrified. But only then does she realize the visitor is of divine origin. While others have doubts about who she has seen, Abbie realizes that she has been chosen for something special, and devotes her life to helping others, one at a time. Her visitor comes one last time at Christmas, to leave a lasting gift that others share.