Having suffered a panic attack during a performance, violinist Meredith Stranraer flees to the small town of Paradise where her grandparents live. For some strange reason, they don't want her around, and their rejection is more than unsettling. It's downright alarming. Jeremiah Mantle is the local forest ranger. His assignment is to watch the girl in the red cloak from a distance--to protect her as well as the forest. Falling in love, however, is definitely not in his job description. But it becomes increasingly harder to deny their mutual attraction. But this Christmas, something wicked waits in the woods, and a dark past seems determined to rip them apart.