Four chronically homeless people–Amelia One Sky, Timber, Double Dick and Digger–seek refuge in a warm movie theatre when a severe Arctic Front descends on the city. During what is supposed to be a one-time event, this temporary refuge transfixes them. They fall in love with this new world, and once the weather clears, continue their trips to the cinema. On one of these outings they meet Granite, a jaded and lonely journalist who has turned his back on writing “the same story over and over again” in favour of the escapist qualities of film, and an unlikely friendship is struck. A found cigarette package (contents: some unsmoked cigarettes, three $20 bills, and a lottery ticket) changes the fortune of this struggling set. The ragged company discovers they have won $13.5 million, but none of them can claim the money for lack proper identification. Enlisting the help of Granite, their lives, and fortunes, become forever changed. Ragged Company is a journey into both the future and the past. Richard Wagamese deftly explores the nature of the comforts these friends find in their ideas of “home,” as he reconnects them to their histories.

Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 - 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's most memorable fictional characters and is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. During his life, his works enjoyed unprecedented fame, and by the twentieth century his literary genius was broadly acknowledged by critics and scholars. His novels and short stories continue to be widely popular.

The Seven Poor travellers is a classic Charles Dickens Christmas short story full of love, loss, regret, and reuniting. The story begins by relating the hardships the English were enduring at the time of the writing and tells of a dear soul who had endowed an inn for poor travelers to give room and board to destitute visitors for one night. Dickens ironically points out that the travelers got about 1/30th of the value, while the management and lawyers of the trust got the other 29/30ths. The narrator tells a story about Richard Doubledick, saved by an officer friend, after a Christmas Eve feast, who became his friend for life until his death at Waterloo. Richard later met the French officer who killed his friend and used forgiveness to get over it, which lead to them and their children becoming lifelong friends. This is a classic story about generations of salvation and friendship.

The story starts in a charity hospice in Rochester-a place that Dickens himself was familiar with from his own childhood. According to the will of the founder, Richard Watts, at Christmas the hospice must provide lodgings and entertainment for one night as well as some money to six poor people, an amount that is substantial enough to allow the travelers to buy a hearty meal. On Christmas Eve there are six people in the inn and the novels is composed from the six stories of the travelers who find shelter in the hospice, plus the narrator himself. The stories told by the travelers and the meal shared create a kind of harmony and a sense of community between the seven people-they all leave the inn the following day and life will probably take them to different places, but they will all cherish the memory of this one serene evening.