Describes the customs, recipes, poems, and songs used to celebrate Christmas in the big plantation houses and in the slave quarters just before the Civil War.
When Amanda's grandmother dies and the extended family tries to recreate her famous Thanksgiving meal, friends and neighbors pitch in to help carry on Bubbe's traditions.
A greedy baker buys his wife a magic bed that flies them to the master baker, where they are given special yeast that helps their bakery become, for a while, the most popular in Florence.
Details the important archaeological discovery of the ancient manuscripts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls and discusses efforts to translate them, the battle over their possession, and the people who have figured in their history.