Megan Sawyer is determined to farm year-round. She's braving a December snowstorm after pitching her greenhouse greens to Philadelphia chefs when she sees a stranger stranded on the side of the road. It's Merry Chance's niece Becca, and she's headed to Winsome to sell her love potions at holiday events - or so she thinks. Merry has an ulterior motive in inviting her niece to Winsome, but her plan to reunite Becca with her estranged father goes awry...

Vermonter Ruth Wilmarth faces her worst nightmare. Not only does the dread disease of the title threaten her small herd of cows and calves but first a few and then a small horde of Irish visitors, relatives of her lover, Colm, descend on her farm. The hate and prejudice that follow the Irish is fueled by one of their number, the abusive Ritchie, who arrives with his sick wife, Nola, to persuade his brother, Darren, to return to his uncle's farm in...