Finding Father Christmas

The lives of an English expat photographer, her daughter, her player ex, a commie spy, a "00" agent and other English in Lindos, Rhodes, Greece.

When their mother decides to retire, her three children organize the Christmas Cake Off to choose which one of them will take over the family bakery.

When he learns that a gangster has taken over his nightclub and murdered his partner, returning WW2 hero Joe Miracle steals the money from the club's safe and hides in a settlement home, while the mob is on his tail.

Cynthia Warren, independently wealthy through her ability as an illustrator and poster artist, rebels against the premise that every woman is destined for matrimony and motherhood, and decides she has as much right as a man to play around sans benefit of marriage. So, leaving behind steady-but-dull Randolph Morgan (who seems to be the primary buyer of her 'art' and income,) she heads for Paris. The New York harbor is barely out of sight before she falls into the arms of a slick from England,William Lawton, who turns out to be something of a rotter who already has a wife, and Cynthia's liberal creed only stretches so far. In Paris, she hooks up with a Prince, who is a prince of a fellow and never strays far from his mother's side, but Lawton shows up again and makes some unwanted advances and the Prince comes to her aid, and Lawton ends up apparently somewhat dead when the Prince tosses him out a window, but Cynthia takes the rap as she feels it wouldn't be nice to separate a boy from his mother. Then, Randolph shows up. And Lawton shows up...again.

Tom Lane is the star columnist for the media conglomerate owned San Francisco Sun newspaper. The company is thinking about increasing Tom's exposure by producing a new television show around him. Liz Madison is the advice columnist for the little read community newspaper, the Marin County Voice, which is a throwback to gentler times. Besides their journalistic occupations, one other similar aspect between Tom and Liz is that they are both currently single, with their friends and family doing whatever they can to find that special someone for their personal life. On November 2, the staff at the Voice learn that the Sun ownership has bought their newspaper, with the probable goal of folding it into the operations of the Sun. If this move does happen, the staff at the Voice will lose their jobs. To fight back, Liz decides to change her column to an editorial espousing the meaning of Christmas and the newspaper to the community. Because of the feisty and entertaining stance of Liz's new column, the circulation of the Voice increases so much so that the owner has second thoughts about folding it, which in turn would put Tom's new television show in jeopardy. To protect his career advancement, Tom decides to write a counterpoint column to Liz's, his about instilling some practicality into Christmas. The competing columns become a personal battle for the two columnists. But as Tom and Liz spew their mutual loathing for each other, their respective friends try to convince them of the old adage that there is a fine line between love and hate.

When the constant comments on her single status and society's expectations of the perfect family Christmas finally get to 30-year-old Johanne, she starts a 24-day hunt for a partner to bring home for Christmas.