 CHURCH AND STATE is the story of a diverse group of people in their early twenties who work in a Christmas store. It s Xmas Eve. At the last minute, their hard-driving, mean-spirited boss suddenly tells the staff the store s going to stay open until midnight. Some of the kids are devastated -- they ve got all kinds of plans. The rest of the kids, a Moslem, two Jews, a Hindu, a lapsed Catholic, don t celebrate Christmas. They tell their co-workers to take off. The film tells the story of their night in the store, as a whole troupe of strange and fascinating characters come in to buy last minute gifts -- a racist woman buying presents for her half-Asian grandkids, a born again Christian who has just been let out of prison. The workers get into an argument over which of their religions has the best winter solstice holiday. It all gets resolved when they come together for a moment in a heartfelt, inter-religious midnight mass.