It's Thanksgiving, and Whit has invited Connie and her mom, June, along with Tom Riley and his wife, Agnes, to Whit's End for dinner. With the Rileys is a boy named Rodney. He's without family today because his father is traveling, and his mother abandoned him when he was a small child. Before everyone sits down to eat, Whit asks them to participate in a tradition his wife started years earlier.

On each plate is a kernel of corn. Whit passes around a basket, and each person is to place their kernel in the basket and tell one thing for which they're thankful. Many of the answers are predictable-Connie and June are thankful for each other, as are Agnes and Tom, and Tom is also thankful for the time of year. But Rodney says his lack of family leaves him without anything to be thankful for. Whit disagrees. He says that as a Christian, Rodney can give thanks in all situations-even difficult ones.

To illustrate, Whit recounts, via flashback, the story of his stepmother, Fiona Donneral. She was a devout Christian woman who did her best to raise Whit after his real mother died. They lived in rural North Carolina where Whit's father was a professor at Duke University. Whit and Fiona did many things together, including ride horses.

As they rode one afternoon, Fiona's horse galloped under a tree, and she was knocked out by a low-hanging branch. When she awoke later, she had lost her sight. Young Whit was devastated. First, he'd had to deal with his natural mother's death, and now, his stepmother's blindness. But Fiona's Christian faith gave her courage and the ability to cope. She pulled both of them through the difficult times. Her faith was so great that it helped lead young Whit to Jesus-which is what his kernel represents.

Fiona's story inspires even Rodney, who decides he really does have much to be thankful for after all.