Corey, who works in her mom's antique shop, puts on a Christmas pageant in honor of her late father. When a man named Ryder visits her store, she wonders if she should have left town to follow her dream of becoming a theater director.

During their last year at an Ivy League college in 1999, a group of friends and crew teammates' lives are changed forever when an army vet takes over as coach of their dysfunctional rowing team.