Abandoned on a doorstep as a baby, Oona grows up caring for an old couple, hoping they will leave their cabin to her. It was not to be, and because no one will marry her, she spends her life in other folks'cabins, nursing those in need. One Christmas Eve, when her work is done, she walks to the boglands near Carn-na-ween, where the Gentle People reward her lifelong kindness with a cabin that opens its door to the lost and heartbroken whenever there's a white Christmas.

First published in 1941 and set in Ireland during the potato famine, this lyrical and haunting story tells the tale of a poor and kind-hearted woman whose lifelong goodness seems to go unrewarded.