Plot summary

It's the approach to Christmas at the busy Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto. Lonely, mild-mannered Miles Cullen is the vault teller at the First Bank of Toronto branch located in the mall, his only regular company being his tropical fish and games of chess he plays against himself. He can admit to her that he is attracted to his coworker, Julie Carver, the branch's operations officer, he not holding it against her that she has just started dating the obsequious bank manager, married Charles Packard. Miles comes into evidence first that someone is planning on holding up the bank, second that the perpetrator is one specific charity collection Santa in the mall he has seen, and third that the holdup will take place immediately after one of the bank's business clients, Mr. Fogelman, makes his weekly deposit, larger this time of year due to the Christmas rush ensuring that there will be a large amount of cash on the bank floor. After weighing the options, strategically minded Miles decides on what he assumes is the day of the holdup that he will secretly pilfer the day's deposits, including Fogelman's, and hand over only the start of the day float to the robber, who he will do whatever to allow get away so that he himself can pocket the day's deposits without detection. The plan goes according to Miles' revised script. However, what Miles does not anticipate is that in he becoming a media darling surrounding the holdup, Arthur Reikle, the perpetrator, notices the discrepancy between his take and what has been reported on the news as the actual amount stolen. Coming out from under his Santa disguise, Reikle begins a systematic stalking of Miles for Miles' take of the robbery in Reikle knowing that Miles cannot go to the police. Things take a potentially dangerous turn for Miles when he learns that Reikle is a sociopath not averse to violence and murder for their own sake. Thus begins a game of cat and mouse between the two men, it never too clear who is the cat and who is the mouse. Two other people factor into what happens between the two: Elaine, a beautiful young woman who works at Miles' father's nursing home; and Julie herself, who arguably knows the goings-on at the bank better than anyone.—Huggo