Dad buys his son an old car to restore, as a birthday present, not realizing that he got an incredible deal. Dad and Mom have high paying jobs so their son goes to school and works on restoring the car to keep busy... until a pretty young neighbor moves in and gives him something else to do.
Cheyenne is a plains world dedicated to production of livestock for sale to other human-occupied planets. Jean has a great job there, but he's offered a better job on a watery planet, and an opportunity to develop his own homestead. In order to take the new job, he has to uproot and transplant his young family. It's not easy going, and once there, the troubles have just begun.
Christmas being one of the more erotic times of year for our protagonist, it provides the catalyst for his feelings growing a certain direction towards a coworker. He learns that inviting a coworker out to dinner can become more than just a fantasy.