A freak storm originates on the West Coast and travels across the county, and the weather bureau tracks it along its path. The stories of various people affected by the violent weather are dramatized by a cast of forty-plus.

Individuals throughout an American city end up touching one another in unexpected ways during the holiday season. Among the unrelated people are a lonely old man and his cat, a movie actor hoping to make it home for Christmas, a businessman, and a scientist who chooses to work in his lab on Christmas Eve.