Mac's ""little sister"" unexpectantly shows up at JAG headquarters, declaring that she's run away from her abusive stepfather. While she investigates whether Chloe has been abused, Mac has her hands full keeping her from turning the office upside down, then learns that her real father is still alive serving on a ship in the Navy. Despite the cost, Mac convinces the Admiral to allow the two to talk to each other via satellite video-conferencing.

Meanwhile, Harm spends the evening interrogating a beautiful Navy doctor arrested for DWI after she lost control of her vehicle on icy roads and ran over a Nativity scene. Harm agrees to defend her when he learns that just before the accident and before she took the breathalyzer test, she had drank some liquid cold medicine (which contains 25% alcohol)

Adm. Chegwidden's attempts to fly to Italy to spend Christmas with his daughter, however, with the Washington, DC area mired in snow, most of the flights out have been cancelled.