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Barry and Caitlin enter a baking contest over the Christmas holidays to raise money for their respective choices of charities. Barry gets in on the strength of his cookies, the family recipe he cherishes as a reminder of his mom, who also encouraged his talent for baking before she passed away. Meanwhile, Caitlin's specialty is ornate pies and though neither of her parents taught her to bake, she got very good at it with her habit of stress baking.

They both do well over the intense few days of the first several challenges, and then for a change, the contest has people team up for the next several. Caitlin is nervous about being paired up with a random stranger, worried it's going to scupper her chances of winning. To her surprise, Barry and her work really well as a team. When the next team-ups are announced, she's a little sad to not work with Barry again – and the viewers at home apparently agree. That disappointment has her heading to rather boldly knock on his hotel door one evening. They end up having dinner together in his room, rather cozy and intimate as they hide out from the spectacle of the fans camped out in the lobby who would have a field day with any attempt to dine in the restaurant downstairs. Each night after that they hang out, chatting about anything and everything and often staying up far too late, not wanting to end their conversations.

Somehow, despite less than stellar pair-ups for them after their initial one together, they both make it through the increasingly tough rounds until they are head to head. The final challenge has them pitted against each other, each trying to compete in the arena of the other person's strength, which happens to be a weakness for each of them the producers are taking advantage of for the show, to ramp up tension. Barry's pie is tasty but lacks the finesse of Caitlin's creations, and Caitlin's cookies look amazing but have a certain something lacking in texture and bite. The judges can't agree and they go away for an hour of intense deliberation that has everyone in the studio on tenterhooks.

When they finally come back, the decision is to split the prize money, joint winners. But Barry looks at Caitlin and thinks of her competitive streak and all the hopes she'd shared with him about what that money could mean for the charity she'd picked.

“You should give it all to Caitlin,” he says. Turning to her, he adds, “I know what it means to you, to raise money for your dad.”

“Barry, no! You can't do that,” she admonishes. “I know what it means to you, to raise money in honor of your mom, to help out kids like you.”

They stare at each other for a long moment before they break out laughing at how intent they both were to sacrifice for the other.

“Fine, we both win,” Caitlin admits and he knows it must be difficult to say that, not quite the win for her cause she imagined. But his worries all melt away when she takes his hand in hers and raises it in triumph above their heads. The aftermath of their win goes past in a haze as Barry's focused entirely too much on the way it feels to hold her hand and how she doesn't let go even when she drops their hands back down to their sides. When he looks to her, her cheeks are blushed like he imagines his are too and he knows there's something there he doesn't want to lose. Something meant to last for more than just this whirlwind Christmas contest that's thrown them together.