Institute History
Description
A beautiful, mysterious young woman arrives in an empty college town on the snowiest Christmas Eve on record; Amy is nine months pregnant and toting a gun. When she breaks into the dorm, she is discovered by two maintenance workers, Charlie and Kevin Hardy, who have been sharing a six-pack with their buddy Jake, hoping to drum up a little Christmas cheer. Little do the three men know that over the next twelve hours, Amy will capture each of their hearts, changing their lives.
Charlie's pretty wife, Rosalie, has been playing around with a construction worker. Husband and wife meet in the snow. All but breaking up, she accuses him of having lost his will to fight. He can't disagree. Rosalie stops in the local convenience store and shares a joint with Ted, the clerk. Charlie and Kevin have Xmas dinner with their divorced sister, Mare, but each brother finds himself drawn back to the dorm, to Amy. Intent on seducing faculty brat Caitlin Bancroft, Jake takes her to mass and has a revelation: Amy is the next Virgin Mary. Each young man hightails it back to the dorm where Amy reveals her story about a college student on spring break, pregnancy and abandonment. Jake bursts in to find Charlie kissing Amy—who suddenly goes into labor.
In a long, night of Midwinter Dreams and small miracles, Ted and Rosalie have wild sex, Caitlin contemplates suicide and Kevin proves his mettle by delivering not one, but two babies as the roof of the dorm caves in under the snow. When Amy's redneck boyfriend Billy shows up, Charlie makes a chivalrous gesture, winning Amy's heart. But Amy is wise enough to know that Charlie's heart belongs to his wife. Exalted and enlarged by their encounter with Amy, Charlie and Kevin reconcile their longstanding differences, Ted and Caitlin trip off into deluded coupledom, Jake makes a play for Mare, and Rosalie and Charlie begin a path of reconciliation. In a surprising final sequence, Amy exacts sweet revenge on the boy who did her wrong before leaving town with Billy and her twin babies. With a sideways, nutty logic, everything is set right.