From a long line of dancers, Clare, a longtime member of the Boston-Cambridge Ballet Company, is told by her friend and the company’s director Sarrah that not only will she not be dancing the lead in the Nutcracker this Christmas as she has done for several years, but that it is time for her to transition into other areas of the business, such as teaching or administration. Not yet mentally prepared to hang up her ballet shoes, Clare plans to spend this December preparing for audition season with other ballet troupes in January. She changes her mind in accepting an invitation from her maternal Aunt Bridget to spend Christmas with her in the house where she grew up, a twenty minute train ride from London, however she makes up a lie in telling Aunt Bridget why she can take time away from what is usually a dance filled Christmas season. Bridget herself was not being totally honest either in having ulterior motives for inviting Clare: Bridget too is planning on the next phase of her life, and in the process is both working on having her house receive a heritage designation so that it cannot be developed if she decides to sell, and figuring out what to do with her dance studio. With both items, Bridget is hoping Clare would consider taking over both. With the house, Bridget has hired a History professor, Liam, to prepare the presentation to the Heritage Committee. When Liam informs them that the presentation will take place on the only day the Committee has available, Christmas Eve, Bridget comes up with the idea to hold a traditional ball at the house to show it to the Committee like it would have been a century ago for Christmas, she asking Clare to handle the formal dance presentation, from choreographing, to coaching the dancers, to dancing in the presentation herself with someone invested in the project, namely Liam, self-professed to have two left feet. Bridget is further hoping that this project will open up Clare’s eyes to other things she has been too busy to pursue, namely romantic love, perhaps with an eligible History professor.
