Jacob is a young snowy owl who's gotten very lost. It's cold and snowy, and Jacob is too tired and wet to fly any farther. As the sun is setting, he sees a light in the distance and heads towards it. He flies right into the trunk of a tree and falls to the ground. There's a large snowy owl in that tree: his name is Hooter, and though big and a bit scary at first, he welcomes the tiny owl into his nest. It's warm in there, and there's plenty of worms to be found for the now-hungry little baby bird. Jacob also sees the lights that guided him there. There are eight of them, and their light flickers in the dark. Hooter tells Jacob how once he was small and lost, and the lights guided him there too. The lights, he explains, glow only once a year for eight days during Hanukkah. Then Hooter tells Jacob the story of the Maccabees...