Ever since lawyer Marissa Parsons married her second husband, librarian Eric Parsons, seven years ago, Marissa's autistic now preteen son, Charlie Parsons, has flourished under Marissa and Eric's caring parenting to points that Marissa never thought would ever happen. Charlie has also flourished in his BFF friendship with Amy Gulsvig, for who he has his first case of puppy love, feelings of jealousy which he doesn't fully understand when she talks about other boys. Charlie is not at a stage of being able to call Eric "Dad" as "Dad" in his particular view of the world is his absent biological father, Marissa's first husband Peter, who they haven't seen or heard from in five years when he unexpectedly showed up at Christmas. Emailing Peter, Charlie is hoping that he will again make an appearance this Christmas. As the town has been granted an official Guinness Book of World Records attempt on Christmas Eve for wrapping the most gifts in one hour, Charlie, for various reasons including wanting to prove to the world that autistic people can achieve greatness, also wants to set a world record at something for Christmas. After going through item after item which was largely a process of grasping at straws, Charlie comes up with something for which he truly has talent, namely stacking items, his proposed attempt to stack the most Jenga blocks on top of a singular vertical one, the current world record being fourteen hundred in a two hour time limit. It is not a guarantee that it will even happen as Marissa and Eric have to convince the Guinness people to allow Charlie to do so when they come to town, an application which is usually a two month minimum process, and they have to, in short order, locate enough Jenga blocks for Charlie to practice. What happens with Charlie and his want to set a world record is affected by those things currently happening in his world, including his feelings for Amy and his want for Peter to see him accomplish something in seeking his approval and love.