When a travel writer shows up unexpectedly at their dad's Bed and Breakfast, the Ralston family all pretend to be guests in hopes of a good review. Lucy (Bethany Joy Lenz) falls for guest Jake (Victor Webster), but can't share her secret.
Lucy Ralston (Bethany Joy Lenz) and her siblings are surprised when their dad converts the family home into a B&B, and just as they're getting over the shock, famed travel writer Bea Turner unexpectedly shows up incognito. To make the struggling inn look more successful, the Ralstons pretend to be guests and must maintain the charade for the duration of Bea's visit. Another guest, Jake (Victor Webster), checks in unexpectedly and attracts Lucy. As the two grow closer, Lucy feels terrible deceiving him, but it turns out that Jake has his own secret.
The adult Ralston siblings - branding executive Lucy, IT technician Will (who along with his makeup blogging wife Suzanne have decided imminently to pack in their jobs to fulfill Will's lifelong dream of traveling the world, they only able to afford to do so in live-work situations), and still undeclared college junior Amber - their paternal grandfather Walter, and their maternal grandmother Margo, are descending on the family home in Pinewood, Connecticut, for the Christmas holidays. What they all learn upon their arrival is that the siblings' long widowed father, retired park ranger Ted, has sunk all his money into remodeling the family home into a bed and breakfast run solely by him. While high on enthusiasm in making this rash decision in being lonely and wanting to meet new people, Ted is short on business acumen, he who may lose the property if he is unable to turn the business around within a couple of months, he having no reservations for the Christmas holidays with the plethora of such businesses in the area. The Ralston Inn does receive two walk-in guests for a few days apiece during the family's stay: Beth Thompson, who is en route to Maine to spend Christmas with distant relatives, and geologist Jake Finlay, who Lucy had met earlier in town and who is passing through the area doing field work. Business-minded Lucy believes specifically Beth is the key to making a name for the inn as indications are that she is really bed and breakfast reviewer Bea Turner, whose recommendations are known to make or break the reputation of an establishment. As such, Lucy concocts a plan for each of the family members to assume a role as an inn guest or staff to impress Beth, each choosing a role that truly matches something close to their heart as their life regardless of if they are truly able to pull off these assumed roles, such as Will and Suzanne being seasoned world travelers, or Amber, in feeling a connection to their culinarily astute mother Annie, taking on the "French chef" role despite only knowing how to cook for herself on a budget as that poor college student. While their ruse will ultimately affect the inn's business, it isn't quite the way that Lucy had imagined as human connections in a romantic sense may end up overtaking matters.—Huggo
