Billy and Gracie Myers don't believe in magic. Not even at Christmastime. They don't believe in ghosts. Not even when they discover a haunted house in the woods behind their home.

Filomena Albright lives in that house, and maybe, just maybe, she can bring a little magic into their lives—and their father's. Evan Myers is overworked and stressed out, steering his chain of sporting-goods stores through the hectic pre-holiday retail season while raising his young son and daughter single-handedly. He has no time to think, let alone think about the woman who has taken up residence in the mysterious house through the forest.

But when Gracie's preschool teacher warns Evan that he'd better get some help, he turns to the Daddy School—and Filomena. That she dazzles him with her intelligence, her energy, and her beauty is irrelevant. She'll be gone with the new year. For now, though, for these few weeks before Christmas, maybe she can be everything Evan and his children need her to be.

Christmas is a time of magic, after all.