Tevis Lockwood is starting a new life with his daughters, Ashley and Jasmine. Leaving behind the sun and heat of Los Angeles, they move to the cold and rainy Seattle suburbs so Tevis can take control of a large shipping company. His daughters are not overly enthused about the move, particularly Jasmine who fears that the cold and rain will bring illness with it. As they set about unpacking and arranging the new house, Jasmine is increasingly worried about the weather and the effects it might have on she and Ashley. Monica arrives as part of the transition team for the shipping company and with Gloria’s help, looks after the girls while Tevis gets situated at work. Tevis arrives at the office pleased with his new station in life and eager to make an impression on the world. When he finds the reception desk empty, Tess shows up with a resume and answers the phone for him. Impressed by her initiative, Tevis hires her on the spot, not a moment before Joaquin, the real receptionist arrives. Joaquin explains that his doctor’s appointment ran late and that it won’t happen again. Tevis agrees and fires him.

Later on, at home, Ashley begins coughing. Tevis, panicked, and fearful for her health rushes her to the emergency room, where she is diagnosed with the same stomach flu as all of the other patients. She is released despite Tevis’s protestations that her sickle cell anemia makes this particular flu a more serious illness. Once home though, her flu goes from bad to worse, and she is in the midst of a sickle-cell crisis. Tevis, no longer trusting the local doctors, insists on taking her all the way into Seattle to the Sickle Cell Clinic. He refuses to wait for an ambulance. Halfway to the clinic, Ashley dies.

After the funeral, Jasmine is still having a hard time accepting her loss. Tevis on the other hand doesn’t have time to feel the pain, he’s too busy trying to inflict it on others. He hires Andrew to sue the hospital and the doctor who treated Ashley for malpractice and wrongful death. As a result of his drive to go on, Tevis pushes his other daughter away when she needs comfort the most. Finally Jasmine runs away, without a coat unmindful of the weather and her own sickle-cell. Monica and Gloria are pretty sure they know where she’s gone.

Jasmine sits on her sister’s grave trying to make sense of the changes in her life, when Andrew appears and assures her that both her sister and her late mother are in a place of peace and happiness. He tells her that she needs to live without fear, to be more than just Tevis’s daughter or Ashley’s sister. She needs to live as Jasmine. When Tevis arrives, it’s his turn for a revelation, and Monica offers one. He needs to stop trying to control every aspect of his life, because its just not possible, he needs to trust in others to do their part, and mostly he needs to trust in God to look after everyone. Tevis’s drive to succeed is a virtue, but not at the cost of his faith, and not at the cost of his family. If he doesn’t take the time to live, he’s not really accomplishing anything.

In a small New York town, just a short commute from NYC, a lone Volkswagen Beetle sits abandoned in the train station parking lot.  It hasn’t moved in months, not since its owner, Bill Harper, took the 6:15 train into the city on the morning of September 11th.  No one knows why he went to New York that day, and no one knows what became of him.  It just makes it that much more difficult for his friends and neighbors to accept that Bill Harper will NOT be home for Christmas.  This year Mr. Harper will not be around to plan the Christmas Pageant, or to give drum lessons to Benny Lewis.  Benny however, refuses to give up hope, everyday checking to see if Mr. Harper’s car has moved, or if anyone has gotten word from him.  But Benny’s fear for Mr. Harper is nothing compared to the fear that has consumed his mother, Victoria, since that awful day.  She, as mayor, refuses to have the Volkswagen towed despite the persistence of Charlie, the town sheriff.  She is reluctant to let someone else work on the pageant, and she refuses to go into the city to have her chronic sore throat looked at.

Her older son, Patrick urges her to abandon her fear, but she dismisses his concern.  Her only desire is to move on with the Holidays and pretend that nothing is wrong.  In an effort to keep things moving along, she grudgingly let’s Monica, who has opened a Christmas store on Main St., begin planning a pageant.  She hires Andrew to continue Benny’s drum lessons, and she is overjoyed when Patrick begins working at Monica’s store in place of the restaurant job he was laid off of.  When they receive word that Mr. Harper’s wallet had been found among the wreckage of the WTC, everything falls apart:  Benny takes the news hard, Victoria refuses to let grief overtake her, and Patrick decides that something must be done to make his family feel safe again.

In an act of selflessness, Patrick goes into the city, and enlists in the army.  He is set to leave for boot camp the day after Christmas.  Victoria has difficulty accepting this decision, and accuses her son of abandoning her and his brother.  The next day, she accompanies Charlie to Mr. Harper’s house, where she discovers that Benny has been leaving hopeful messages on his teacher’s answering machine, ever since 9/11.  She also uncovers some clues as to what Mr. Harper was doing at the World Trade Center, and what he was planning for the pageant.  After a revelation from Monica, and allowing herself to finally mourn, Victoria takes the train into New York City, and solves the mystery surrounding Mr. Harper’s last day.  Picking up where he left off, she arranges for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to sing at the pageant, where she wishes her son good luck, and God Speed.

Monica revisits the home of Elizabeth Jessup, a retired reporter who she once helped cope with alcoholism.  Tess insists that Monica is there as the answer to someone’s prayer.  Monica hurries up the steps to offer Elizabeth whatever help she may need, only to discover that her help is not only unwanted, but resented.  Elizabeth wants nothing to do with the angel that once helped her out.  Monica shows up at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, where Elizabeth is celebrating seven years of sobriety.  In the midst of her speech, she begins to slur her words, insisting that she hasn’t been drinking, it’s just a headache.

After the meeting, Monica meets up with her and her daughter, Sydney and granddaughter, Beth.  Monica expresses her concern and Elizabeth says that she’s developed a tendency for transient cognitive episodes of undetermined origin.  Sydney explains that the doctors suspect a brain tumor.  Later on, Monica reads Elizabeth’s memoirs, and asks why there is no mention of the fire Elizabeth started at the peak of her problem, or why she doesn’t say anything about angels.  Elizabeth tells Monica she’d be laughed out of the news business if she wrote about meeting an angel.

That evening, Elizabeth passes out and is taken to the hospital.  Once she comes to, she is eager to get out, but Sydney won’t let her, and neither will Monica, nor Tess who is working as a nurse.  As the night goes by and Elizabeth waits for the results of her test, Monica tells her of some of her favorite and most challenging assignments.  Finally, Andrew enters with the news, it’s a brain tumor.  She schedules the surgery and sits down with Gloria to finish her memoirs, “before it’s too late.”  The next day, while Elizabeth is in surgery, Monica reads the last chapter to Sydney and Beth.  This time Elizabeth tells the truth about the fire, and of how she beat alcoholism.  When the story ends, so does the surgery, and Elizabeth is going to be all right.

The angels lure a group of former classmates and their significant others to a run down bar and restaurant called “Bubba’s Polynesian Paradise”.  Andrew, acting as a marriage counselor, sends Yvette and Peter there when they have trouble talking about anything but work.  Monica catches the eye of Michael, a lonely paramedic, and leads him on a wild goose chase ending at Bubba’s.  Tess sends Leigh and her “I’m the boss” husband Jimmy to the dive in order to squeeze lunch into their thoroughly planned outing.  And Karen, a lawyer who has lost her sense of purpose, is stranded in the Polynesian nightmare when a bad client, a flat tire, and returning angel Rafael combine to alter her day.

As they become aware of each other and gravitate toward a single table, they catch up on the years gone by, and make the startling discovery that their former teacher Dave Price is bussing their table.  Dave denies his identity at first, hating what he’s become, and despising what he is about to do.  He has agreed to help Bubba, the owner, burn the place down in exchange for a chunk of the insurance money.  He figures if he can dodge his students and forget the good man he used to be, he’ll be able to go through with the arson.  But after some prodding by Gloria, Dave admits who he is and how he got there.  Soon the former students teach the teacher about life, and tell him of the differences he made in theirs.   Dave tells Bubba he won’t do it, and reconciles with himself and his past.  The meeting puts balance back into Leigh’s marriage, gives Yvette and Peter something to talk about, and reconciles lost lovers Michael and Karen.  Everyone is better off from their visit to Bubba’s and none of them knew the part the angels played in their lives.

Nick Albright is having a difficult time adjusting to the changes in his family.  His dad’s business is going under, his parents are splitting up, and on top of that it looks like there may not even be a Thanksgiving.  It is all of this and Nick’s curiosity that lead him to make a terrible decision.  After an attempt at family counseling with Monica, a failed reunion between his parents, and the constant babysitting of Gloria, Nick plans to sneak out.  He wants to find the peace, love, unity, and respect that is missing from his home life, at a Thanksgiving Rave called Heaven’s Portal.

Gloria is not about to let him go, but as she can’t seem to stop him, she decides to come along instead.  At the rave, they meet Celestine and Grover, a couple of ravers who tell them about how “we’re all family”.  Inside, they dance to the techno beat and are offered ecstasy, a drug that will bring them closer to God.  Nick is eager to try it, and Gloria is intrigued with the idea of “prayer in pill form”.  Having both taken the pills, their high starts out well, but soon they are freaking out.  When Monica and Jessica arrive looking for them, the juvenile and angel delinquents run.  They get into Nick’s car and speed away.

Eventually they’re cornered at a cliff overlooking the sunrise.  Nick decides that he wants to drive off the edge, but Gloria pushes him out of the car at the last minute.  As Gloria plummets to what Nick believes to be her death, Monica reveals herself to Nick and his parents.  She says that Gloria is fine.  She also tells them that the secret of a strong family is the simple act of loving and believing in each other.

Dennis Loggins is a young multi-billionaire. He’s become a success, he’s gotten in shape, he’s spent years improving himself, and he’s done it all for the love of a good woman. Or so he tells himself. The fact is that Dennis has engineered this façade of confidence and importance solely as a means for revenge. In high school Dennis was a nerd with a crush on the head cheerleader, Melissa. Due to her kindness and attention, Dennis’s crush transformed into unrequited love. To make matters worse, he was constantly tormented and humiliated by Ricky, Melissa’s boyfriend.

On one memorable occasion, Ricky tricked Dennis into admitting his love for Melissa over a live microphone at the football game. Dennis never got over the humiliation, despite Melissa’s assurance that he needn’t worry. Now years later, Dennis is a success, and is eager to return Ricky’s slights ten-fold. He hires Gloria on as an assistant specifically to find out what football team Ricky is playing for, and to help Dennis re-plan the ten-year high school reunion. Moving the gathering to a much more glamorous location, and bringing Gloria as his “date”, Dennis waits eagerly for the payoff of his plans. He has bought the football team that Ricky plays for, and has arranged for a phone call to be made a minute before the crowning of the King and Queen of the reunion, to tell Ricky that he’s fired. When Ricky arrives, it’s obvious that he’s changed. He apologizes to Dennis for the grief he gave him in high school, and congratulates him on his success. Ricky is nonplussed, but is so wrapped up in the pending arrival of Melissa, that he all but ignores the change.

When Melissa shows up it’s more than obvious that she too is different. She’s dying of cancer. Dennis is blown away, he stands with his jaw hanging open as Ricky hurries to Melissa’s side and lovingly leads her through the gathering. Dennis goes over to her and they talk for a while, she tells him how her illness has changed Ricky into a warm, caring, compassionate man. Dennis instantly regrets his plotting and scheming, and hurries inside to swipe Ricky’s cell phone, before the call arrives. He makes it just in time, and Melissa and Ricky take the stage as King and Queen of the reunion. Toby Keith hired by Dennis as part of the night’s festivities takes the stage to perform “My List”.

Monica and Gloria breeze into Carlisle, Arizona in search of a cup of coffee, and the Famous Last Words of a death row inmate.  Posing as an author, Monica steps into the Oasis diner, where she meets Shirlee, a waitress with a nice smile and a strange fascination with the families that come to see their relatives die by lethal injection.  Meanwhile, across the street, convicted killer Daniel Lee Corbitt is trying to stay tough on the eve of his own execution.  He brags about the fame that will come with his death, and about the “book writer” who’s coming to see him.  What Daniel didn’t count on was the arrival of Andrew, his own personal angel of Death, who has come to see him through the final thirty-six hours of his life.

When Monica arrives in the prison with her assistant, Gloria, Daniel is only too eager to ignore Andrew and continue upon his quest for immortality through a tell-all biography.  He happily relates his history and the events that led up to him returning home, after years on the street, to shoot his Mother’s third husband seven times in the chest.   Monica watches the memory as Daniel shoots him dead, and calls out “That cost you seven old man!”  Gloria asks about Daniel’s mother, but he admits that he hasn’t seen in her in years.  Monica offers to search for her, and Daniel gives her what information he can.  He tells Monica that his mother went by her middle name “Shirlee with two e’s,” and that she may also be using her married name “Gibbons.”  Monica and Gloria realize that Shirlee, the waitress from the Oasis is indeed Daniel’s mother.  After a confrontation with Shirlee, Monica is finally able to convince her to go and see Daniel.  When she does, Daniel surprises them all by his treatment of Shirlee.  He rails and screams at her and says that the only love and comfort he ever received was from Alonzo his childhood Teddy bear.  He says that it is Alonzo and not Shirlee that he wants in the witness chair to his execution.  Shirlee is shattered by Daniel’s words, and runs from the confrontation.

Daniel tells Monica how when he finally did run away, it was because he realized that Shirlee had been planning his beatings with her husband, Delroy.  Monica goes to comfort Shirlee while Andrew tries to dissuade Daniel from meeting his death with harsh thoughts and harsh words.  Andrew tells him that he need only ask forgiveness of God, and he will be accepted into heaven.  Back at the diner, Monica discovers that Shirlee didn’t plan Daniel’s beatings, instead she pleaded with Delroy to let her take some of the whacks in his place.  Daniel received seven lashes, but Shirlee took thirteen.  Monica reveals herself as an angel and tells Shirlee that God does not hold her responsible for the sins of her son, and that she may have made mistakes but she tried and that is what matters.  When Monica brings Shirlee to the execution, the finality of the moment and the intervention of angels, allow mother and son to forgive and love each other.

Mike is a young man trying to discover the truth about his father. All that his mother, Allison, ever told him was that he was a lawyer and that he left. She refuses to tell him anything more, and gets upset when Mike announces his transfer to a building site near her parking enforcement patrol. She encourages him to quit the job and go to college and to stop listening to all that jazz. Mike just smiles and shakes his head.

Later on at the construction site, Monica shows up as a building inspector and asks Andrew, the foreman, for some building permits. He doesn’t have them, but assures her that they have been pulled. Monica suggests that they use the internet coffee house to check online. Andrew sends Mike to help her. On their way into the coffee shop they pass by Gloria who is selling record albums from a sidewalk booth. Inside, Monica shows him how to find things on the net. He asks can she find people? Monica doesn’t see why not, so she begins a search for a lawyer named Simon K. Miller, Mike’s father. Mike goes outside to look at Gloria’s records, then Monica comes out with bad news, she can’t find Simon K. Miller. Tess, also looking at the records, asks Gloria where she saw that name. Then she remembers and produces an old jazz album featuring Simon K. and the Chattanooga Express. Simon is amazed and goes inside to play the record on the Juke Box.

Once the record gets going, a local homeless man comes in and grabs it, saying it’s his record. It’s him. Mike has found his father, but Simon gets scared and runs. When confronted, Allison admits that Simon was a musician, but she says that that is why he left them. Mike tries to track him down, but soon discovers that not only is Simon homeless, but he’s also suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. He finds Simon and takes him home, much to Allison’s agitation. Simon refuses to take his medicine, and in the midst of one of his hallucinations, sets fire to Mike’s room. He runs. When they finally find him again, it takes the angels to bring him out of his delusion state and into the arms of his family, who will see that he gets the help he needs.

When a cancer patient is taken by Andrew, Gloria’s curiosity about death is piqued.  Monica suggests she take a “ride-along” with Andrew.  Meanwhile, Robby McGregor locks his sister Sarah in a bomb shelter to protect her from their abusive father.  He then returns the key to his father’s key-chain.  Later on, mailman Chuck Parker comes upon the McGregor house.  Robby answers Chuck’s “easy” baseball trivia question, then asks about a special package he is expecting.  Chuck hasn’t seen it, but assures Robby that he’ll keep an eye out.  Robby’s father, Gary, hollers for him to “Get in here!”.  Robby does, and Chuck gets back into his truck, only to discover the package.  Chuck hurries up to the door, but before he can knock , he hears an argument.  At the sound of a slap, and Robby’s “Ow!”, Chuck rings the doorbell.

When Gary answers, Chuck presents the package and insists that Robby sign for it himself.   Gary refuses, so Chuck leaves.  Gary demands to know what’s in the package, Robby says “I can’t…it’s your birthday present.”  This changes Gary’s attitude, and he goes to buy Chinese food for dinner, but not before Robby can once again steal the key to the bomb shelter.  With Gary gone, Robby frees Sarah from her hiding place.  Chuck meets Grams’ new nurse, Monica.  Monica leads Grams to her room, and is surprised to find Gloria and Andrew waiting.  This is part of the “ride-along”.  Andrew takes Grams Home.  Across town, Gary is drunk again, so Robby hurries Sarah back into the bomb shelter where she meets an angel, Tess.

Chuck, overcome with grief, delivers Robby’s package: it’s a gun.  He loads it and tells Sarah that everything will be okay.  Robby puts the gun back in the box and hides it under his bed.  But, before he can return the key, Gary wakes up and demands to know where he’s hiding Sarah.  Robby refuses and hides in his room.   Robby aims the gun at the door, while Andrew and Gloria watch unseen.  Robby decides he can’t do it, and returns the gun to its box.  When Gary gets into the room, Robby runs.  He hides the box in a bush and takes off.  Robby rushes into the street in front of Chuck’s car.  Chuck accidentally hits and kills Robby.

The next day he shows up with a casserole that Gary chucks into the yard.  While retrieving it, Chuck finds the gun.  He takes it home and contemplates suicide in the garage.  The angels have a revelation and Chuck recants, God gave him the gun to save Robby’s sister.  Meanwhile, Gary has found the key amongst Robby’s personal effects.  He opens the bomb shelter and yells for Sarah to come out.  Tess confronts him, and Chuck arrives with the box.  He shows the gun to Gary so he knows how bad it had gotten.  Sarah confirms their fears and Gary crumbles.  Officer Dave arrests him.  Chuck agrees to stay with Sarah until she finds a new home.

Andrew pays a visit to Catherine, an 88-year-old woman who lost her husband in WWII. She has since lost her youth as well as her faith in her children and grandchildren. All except for one that is: her grandson, Paul. She shows Andrew a copy of the Memoirs of Nehemiah, an ancient document pointing out the hiding place of the Ark of the Covenant. After this revelation, she secures his promise to take it to the post office and ship it to Paul, who is away at school. Meanwhile, Tess, Monica, and Gloria are floating around Paul’s campus eager to get started on their next assignment.

Andrew arrives and tells them what he saw. Gloria masquerades as a student to infiltrate Paul’s history class. Here, she meets Thomas, a history professor with a zeal for Ark-lore. Later on Paul stops by Thomas’ office with the Memoirs of Nehemiah. He thinks it might “be something important”, because his grandfather traveled extensively in the Middle East during the war. Thomas assures him that it’s nothing, but becomes a bundle of excitement the moment Paul leaves. At a faculty party that evening, Monica poses as one of the people who gave Thomas his book grant. Thomas is furious. He can’t show her anything of his book, because he spent all of the money and time devoted to it, on yet another trip to find the Ark. Gloria crashes the party, and eagerly gives Thomas a hint about the Ark that she found in the Bible. Now Thomas has all of the pieces. He immediately plans another trip to the Temple Mount, which Monica talks her way into being a part of. Gloria and Andrew will tag along.

Later, at the base of Mount Nebo, Thomas uses all of his clues to pinpoint the location the correct cave. Andrew remains at base camp while the others continue on. At the entrance to the cave, they encounter Micah, who bids them “Stop in the name of Almighty God!” Thomas draws a concealed pistol, and threatens to shoot Micah. Micah backs off. They continue on, but Gloria breaks her glasses and is forced to stay behind with Micah. Monica and Thomas continue on, leaping obstacles and squeezing through cracks, until they are forced into some running water deep underground. Thomas loses his compass, but insists that they go on. Meanwhile, Gloria tells Micah of what is going on in the world, and he teaches her to sing. Back in the caves, Thomas reveals the real reason for his obsession. He was looking for the Ark years before, his wife came to visit, and she died in a cab crash on the way to the airport. He must find the Ark so that her death will have meant something. They come to what appears to be a dead end, but Thomas finds an inscription, which Monica translates as “You are standing on Holy Ground”.

Thomas gets very excited, throws down his equipment, and begins to hack away at the wall with his pickaxe. Thomas breaks through to discover a veil obscuring an altar on which the Ark sits. Micah is there with a sword, he reveals himself as an Angel set to guard the Ark. He turns to Monica, who is gone. When he turns back to Micah; Gloria, Monica, Tess, and Andrew are at his side. They all glow, and begin a revelation. They tell him what the Ark means, and why it is hidden, and that the time isn’t right for it to be taken from this place. If he wants the vessel of the Lord, he already has it, because He travels in our hearts. Thomas rails against them. The Ark begins to glow, and the Light is the love of God. Thomas is a changed man. He returns home, content, and tells Paul that his Grandmother sent him a treasure.