Set in one block of San Francisco's Tenderloin district in the late 1970s, Winter's Edge centers around the lives of two working-class women in their sixties: Chrissie MacInnes, a tough, outspoken, Scottish-born waitress, and the more subdued Margaret Sawyer, a clerk in a news shop.

When a local political election threatens their neighborhood with gentrification, it also threatens their friendship: Chrissie fights fiercely for her values and her home, while Margaret tries not to "get involved." But when the election battle leads to arson and violence, they join forces to find the culprit - and in the process, find the courage to reexamine their pasts, face their fears for the future, and affirm the importance of friendship and of community.