Winter 1970: Mr. Hunham is a professor of ancient history at a prestigious private boys’ high school in New England. Pedantic and gruff, he is appreciated neither by his students nor his colleagues. As Christmas approaches, Mr. Hunham is asked to stay on campus to monitor the handful of residents confined there. Soon there will be only one left: Angus, a 1st grade student who is as gifted as he is insubordinate. Too recently bereaved by the death of her son in Vietnam, Mary, the establishment’s cook, prefers to stay away from the celebrations. She completes this improbable trio.