"Jason Chercher is not doing well in love or life. Just two weeks after his wife leaves him he receives a phone call that his estranged mother has passed away, days before Christmas--leaving her home and all her belongings to him. Curiosity about his past and anxiety about his future fuels him to make the drive from Salt Lake City to her home in Medford, Oregon. Maybe cleaning out her house will be slightly less depressing than spending the holidays alone, watching re-runs of Christmas classics. While going through her things he comes upon her diary and the record of his childhood. As Jason reads the diary he begins to uncover the source of his pain in relationships and understand that what he believed to be the truth of his past was actually a lie."--