Napoleon’s war still rages on the Continent, and Lieutenant Christmas Astley-Milne must return to sea. However, Chris is tormented that Emma Clavering, the woman he’s always loved, might marry another while he’s gone. There’s nothing for it but for him to propose before he leaves.

Emma accepts without hesitation. But as months turn into years, and nothing more is heard of Chris, must she also accept that he’s dead, or is he being held captive? The only way she can keep hope alive is to help bring prisoners of war back to England as part of a smuggling operation she runs with her cousin. It’s her dearest wish that Chris, wherever he is, is being treated well, and he, too, will eventually be returned safe and sound.

Finally, after five long years, her steadfastness is rewarded when Chris comes home just in time for Christmas. But he is not the same man who left her to fight the French. War has changed him, and he is wounded inside and out. Will anything, save a Yuletide miracle, be enough to thaw his heart?