When Eldon and Cole pick up a hitchhiker, Jean on their father-son trip to find perspective on the back roads of America, they quickly learn that everything is not what it seems. As the road unfolds in front of them, so do their lives begin to intertwine. A small-time crook on the run, an ex-cop and his quiet ten-year-old son begin to bond together - at least until the secrets begin slipping out. Before Jean can figure out what is really going on, she finds herself already trapped in a spiraling nightmare where she will have to make a choice between turning her back on a little boy who needs her help, or sacrificing herself and going back to jail.

Missie three years later: being a single mother after her husband Willie was shot during a poker scuffle. She and Maddy move back in with her parents Clark and Marty. She finds a new home, and finds a new teaching position that she settles right into, but Missie has lost all faith in herself, until a chance encounter at her father's church where she adopts homeless orphan Belinda Marshall.

The fairytale story revolves around a young prince who - along with his entourage - is turned into a nutcracker through his own ungrateful and selfish behaviour, and awaits a kindly soul who'll release him from the spell. The mouse-king seeks the magic that made this happen so that he can become all-powerful. The prince (now a nutcracker) finds hope in the form of a girl who risks everything to help him become real again, while the mouse-king and his armies do everything they can to steal the magic for themselves.