Cigarette smoke fills the space between Erica and her Da as she prepares for another meeting with her caseworker. Her hope jar is rattled in the dole office, but two seven-year-olds manage to help her piece it back together.

Ola sets off to Ireland to bring her father's body back to Poland after he dies in a building site accident. But never mind her dad, Ola wants to know if he had saved money for the car he had promised her. Dealing with foreign bureaucracy in her own streetwise way, Ola will get to know her father.

A married couple travel from Chicago to spend Christmas with the wife's family in a small town in Ireland. This is a holiday which will test their patience—and their marriage.