When Clay Spencer fails to arrive home at the expected hour on Christmas Eve of 1933 his family is concerned. The older son Clay–boy is dispatched to find his father. On his journey through the snowbound Virginia hills he experiences a series of hazardous touching and hilarious adventures. An encounter with the neighborhood Negro church teaches Clay-boy a lesson in race relations and while taking refuge from a snowstorm he is overwhelmed by the intoxicating hospitality of two elderly genteel lady bootleggers.

Finally, at midnight, when all hope for him has been abandoned, Clay Spencer provides a surprising climax to the story, and in a single moment illuminates the triumph of the human spirit.

Rich with life that rings true filled with nostalgia laughter and tears The Homecoming is a warm and wonderful classic and the novel on which the CBS Christmas special was based. EARL HAMNER JR. is a novelist and an Emmy Award–winning writer.