Deep in Appalachia, Pastor Lemuel Childs presides over an isolated community of serpent handlers, an obscure sect of Pentecostals who willingly take up venomous snakes to prove themselves before God. As his devoted daughter, Mara "Alice Englert" prepares for her wedding day, under the watchful eye of Hope Slaughter, a dangerous secret is unearthed and she is forced to confront the deadly tradition of her father's church.
Nora Walker is told that her British fighter pilot husband is missing in action and presumed killed in World War II. On VE. Day, Nora gives birth to their son, who she names Tommy. While Tommy is an adolescent, Nora marries Frank, a shifty camp counselor. Shortly thereafter, Tommy suffers an emotionally traumatic experience associated with his father and step-father, which, based on things told to him at that time, results in him becoming deaf, dumb and blind, a situation which several people exploit for their own pleasure. As Nora tries several things to bring Tommy out of his psychosomatic disabilities, Tommy, now a young man, happens upon pinball as a stimulus. Playing by intuition, Tommy becomes a pinball master, which in turn makes him, and by association Nora and Frank, rich and famous. Nora literally shatters Tommy to his awakening, which ultimately leads to both the family's rise and downfall as people initially try to emulate Tommy's path then rebel against it.
A queer lady holiday romantic comedy that follows the lives of three very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set right before Christmas through New Years.