The plot is based on the children's story from Pulitzer Prize winning Irish author Frank McCourt, and is set in Limerick, Ireland in the 1910s.

The story revolves around Angela's (Lucy O'Connell) desire to make sure everyone is having a great Christmas.

[6][7][8][9] In Limerick 1914, Angela and her two older brothers Pat and Tom and younger sister Aggie, along with Mother, head to mass in a local church.

After Pat's constant protests to make the family believe it is true, they go upstairs to find Angela with Baby Jesus and take both of them downstairs.

Mother breaks them up and tells them a story about what happened on New Year's Eve, when shortly after Angela was born, their father was arrested for taking coal out of the back off a fuel cart, despite just trying to make the house warm for the baby, and explains how saddened she was.