A Country Christmas Story

Living in rural Tennessee, fourteen-year-old Grace Gibson is bi-racial. Her white mother, Jenny Gibson, kicked her black husband and Grace's father, Danny Gibson, out of the house three years ago, he who is on the road struggling to make it as an R&B musician, that struggle despite his talent. Because of the financial bind Danny has placed them in following his dream, Jenny does whatever to focus Grace's mind on a prosperous future, namely in the sciences and computers as that is where the college scholarships lie. Grace sings in the church choir under the direction of New York City transplant Trev Hailey, a talented, but failed musician in his own right. He can see that Grace has talent as a singer, something that Jenny does not want fostered seeing as to what Danny following such a dream has done to their life. So it is even more against Jenny's wants when Grace, finding her father's old guitar in storage, announces that she wants to learn how to play. Wanting to nurture her latent talent, Mr. Hailey agrees to help Grace with the guitar, needing to do it on the sly because of Jenny's feelings. Also on Grace's side, is her maternal grandmother, Sarah, who can see how her own life decisions have negatively affected Jenny and thus Grace by association. Mr. Hailey further suggests that Grace enter the Country Star of Tomorrow competition hosted by Dolly Parton at Dollywood just prior to Christmas. Overcoming her own stereotypical perception that country music is solely a white person's domain, Grace works toward the competition as a goal, which requires her to write and perform her own song. Grace decides to write a song about her emotions toward her broken family. Beyond the therapy for Grace herself in going through the process, regardless of if she wins or not, Jenny and Danny, who both eventually learn about Grace entering the competition and the subject matter of the song, will have to deal with their own feelings about them as a family.