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Charley, an aging south Texas motel owner,
gets a Christmas Eve visit from Monica, who tells him not to fear,
because she brings him tidings of great joy. Charley in a drunken
daze, thinks the beautiful glowing angel before him is merely a
hallucination, and begins a dialogue with this “vision” as he
decorates his Desert Star Inn for the holiday. Monica tells
Charley that he will receive a miracle this Christmas Eve, and he,
somewhat skeptical, hypothesizes about what this will be. He
hopes it will be a new star, something he has been waiting quite a
long time to see through his high-powered telescope from the roof
of the inn. Meanwhile, Tess serves coffee to three lonely
truckers who celebrate the holiday at a truck stop. As they
leave, Tess points them to the inn, but the truckers muse at the
thought of spending an evening at the dilapidated motel.
Elsewhere, Jorge and Marisol, a young Mexican couple, illegally
across the border, panic when pregnant Marisol begins to show
signs of an early labor. Rafael arrives telling them that they
are needed to help someone this evening. When he says he is from
their village in Mexico, they go with him. In another part of the
state Andrew sits on border patrol with Carl, a cynical deputy,
who is anxious to catch some “illegals.” Monica, still glowing
atop the motel roof, stirs up a dust storm, which makes driving
difficult for the truckers. At Tess’ instruction via CB, they
head towards a light in the desert, the light Monica exudes, and
the only thing visible on the stormy landscape. Rafael, Jorge,
and Marisol, driving through the storm, run out of gas. They,
too, see the light and begin to follow it. When the three arrive
at the inn, Charley, obviously prejudiced against Mexicans, at
first refuses to give them a room, and rather than call a doctor,
he calls the border patrol. Carl and Andrew head for the motel.
Charley reveals to Monica the reason why he is so bitter: as a
young man he traveled in Mexico and fell in love with a young
woman named Estrella, whose parents wouldn’t allow them to marry.
Later Estrella’s father told Charley that the heartbroken Estrella
killed herself. Charley tells Monica that he intends to do the
same as soon as he sees a new star, something no one else has ever
seen. Monica pleads with Charley to do something that will “make
the angels sing,” and become a man with faith in the God who loves
him. Marisol gives birth to the child as the truckers draw near,
and Monica and Rafael proclaim this child to be the miracle,
something which no man has ever seen. The baby girl is named
Estrella, after Marisol’s grandmother, the same woman Charley
loved, who is alive and well in Mexico. When Charley hears this
news he has a change of heart and when Carl and Andrew arrive to
arrest any illegal aliens, Charley hides everyone by working them
into his nativity scene, including Tess as a shepherd and the
truckers as the three wise men. As Charley makes plans to visit
his old love in Mexico, Monica and Tess bid everyone “Peace On
Earth and Goodwill to Men.”
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