Charles Dickens paces his library in Gads Hill. Inspiration strikes, and he settles down to write A Christmas Carol.

Fred Wyland, nephew of Ebenezer Scrooge, gives money to poor children on Christmas Eve. Scrooge, leaving his office, is chased by poor children. At the office, Scrooge's clerk Bob Cratchit bids goodbye to his crippled son and goes to work. A poor woman comes to the office to beg from Scrooge but he turns her away. Cratchit gives her money.

At Middlemarks, the poor line up for food. When the food runs out, Middlemark goes to Scrooge for assistance but is turned away. Scrooge gives Cratchit a second-hand quill as a Christmas present. After Cratchit has gone, he settles down with his money to sleep.

Marley's ghost appears and shows him in sequence his childhood sweetheart, Cratchit's Christmas, a vision of the death of Cratchit's crippled son Tim, and his own lonely tombstone. Scrooge wakes. Realising the error of his ways, Scrooge throws money from his window to the poor children and sends a boy for a large turkey for Cratchit, then goes to visit them for lunch in good humour.