Plot summary

It is the busiest season for the Golden Dragon, a Chinese restaurant long owned and operated by first generation immigrants Jim and Sue Chen in Wichita KS, namely the Christmas season, it one of the few restaurants open on Christmas day when "Christmas misfits" frequent the establishment, including many of their regulars. It's the first Christmas for Jane since her husband's unexpected passing from a heart attack, he the basketball coach at the University of Wichita. While Jane is having a hard time moving on without him, she laments that her daughter Veronica, a high powered CFO at a tech company, seems to have easily put him in her past, she fixated on her father often not having been there for the family in favor of his high profile career. Veronica will have to move on herself from what she will learn is just the latest of many failures of expensive IVF treatments in the goal to have a family of her own as a single. Veronica's work colleague, engineer Nate, is determined to make it a merry Christmas for his two adolescent daughters, Jessa and Vivi, in light of the recent divorce from their mother, he perhaps trying a little too hard especially for Jessa's taste. The restaurant being open on Christmas also means a working day for Jim and Sue's staff, including their now two young adult offspring Romy and Rick, who have never had what most would consider a traditional Christmas. Their busboy/delivery boy, Miguel, a second generation Mexican-American, has received early acceptance into many of the nation's most prestigious colleges, he not having told his father Luis in not being able to afford such unless he gets a scholarship, which may be difficult as he doesn't have the perfect resume in lack of community service, despite he going out of his way to help his neighbors whenever they are in need. Rick, who generally waits tables, has failed out of college, he not having told Jim and Sue that he has found his passion, namely to be a chef, something that Jim and Sue probably would not have wanted for either of their children in they themselves only opening the restaurant as a means to support the family. Rick is facing another issue in the return home for the season of his Jewish "friend" Sadie from Los Angeles, she who he's always had feelings for but who has never really forgiven him for standing her up at her high school prom in his own feelings of lack of self-worth. And Jim and Sue have given Romy, an account executive at a New York furnishing company, permission to forgo working at the restaurant this Christmas season in favor of her spending the holidays with her boyfriend Blake and his family in Vermont, what she is expecting to be a traditional winter Christmas as idealized in all her favorite Christmas movies. Jim and Sue have given her that permission in light of their announcement: that they have sold the restaurant property and will be closing the Golden Dragon for good, their last day being Christmas Eve allowing their staff to be able to spend Christmas as Christmas this year for the first time. This announcement, which also funnels its way to Romy in Vermont, will have a profound effect on the family, the staff and the Christmas regulars in light of their current issues.