Holly and Mark Jepson have politely declined to spend Christmas helping Uncle Reg in the holiday village he owned, on a muddy part of the Somerset coast. But when Reg has to go into hospital after an accident, they are obliged to put aside their plans for a quiet Christmas by themselves, and set about preparing for the motley assortment of Reg's guests. Into the various chalets come Cree, an eccentric artist friend of Reg, and his handsome daughter, Cass; Paula and Dennis, young married students expecting their first baby, to the secret envy of the childless Holly; Bernice, Mavis and Pansy, three not-so-young ladies who'd met Reg on a cruise, and who all, in their separate ways, had a very soft spot for him; Ivy and Ted, loving partners with unhappy marriages behind them - they hoped - and four small children between them. All, in their separate ways, are to play a part in the unexpected, and at times shattering, events which take place before the new millennium dawned. As the first fireworks of the year 2000 fall into the sea in a shower of silver stars,both guests and hosts at this wintry gathering look forward to a new and better world.