Risking his life was just the beginning

When nine-year-old Tom Newton is saved from icy death by a stranger who disappears into the night, the story captures public attention. The tabloid Star eventually identifies the unknown hero as a publisher, wealthy reclusive Owen Adair. 

Sara Newton wants nothing more than to thank her son's rescuer from the bottom of her heart. The Star wants that too, as long as they have an exclusive. But a blizzard intervenes, leaving the press out in the cold when Sara finally meets Owen. Who has no interest in being thanked.

Owen is a firm believer in taking risks in order to get ahead in life—thoughtful, well-judged risks, not foolish impulses. Generally, when he feels one of the latter coming on, he squelches it by giving a gift. He has a high opinion of his ability to select perfectly apt gifts for his friends. His friends wish he wouldn't. Come any time, they like to say, but lose the gifts.

To his credit, Owen refrains from giving Sara a gift. Instead, he does something worse, so much so that her dominant emotion following their encounter is loathing.

Thanks to the media, Sara and Owen find their names inextricably linked. Sara must solve the mystery of a man with a host of friends who never see him, while Owen grapples with the knowledge that Sara dislikes the best thing about him. When she invites him for Christmas Eve with her family but insists on no gifts, he is incensed.

It takes the city, the Star and a department store to open Owen's eyes to the cowardice that has marked his adult life. Only then is he able to move forward and become the man he was meant to be.

Set during the Christmas season, Owen's Day explores gift-giving and the value of risk-taking as a catalyst for human progress.