Paul (Paul Giamatti), a teacher at the prep school Barton Academy, is not very popular. Students, teachers and principals don't like him very much. They think he is flamboyant and rigid. During the Christmas vacation in 1970, Paul stayed at the school to supervise the students who couldn't go home. After a few days, only one student remained-a 15-year-old troublemaker named Angus, who was a good student destroyed by bad behavior and always on the verge of expulsion. Staying with Paul and Angus is the school cook Mary, an African-American woman who serves the sons of the privileged class and whose own son has recently disappeared in Vietnam. These three very different losers form a strange Christmas family, sharing misfortunes during the two weeks of heavy snow in New England and realizing that none of them are grateful for their past.