The film stars Keisha Castle-Hughes, Oscar Isaac, Hiam Abbass, Shaun Toub, Alexander Siddig, Ciarán Hinds, and Shohreh Aghdashloo.

Via flashback, the Annunciation and the birth of Jesus Christ are shown to explain why King Herod the Great ordered the act.

One year before the massacre, Zechariah, a rabbi in Jerusalem, is making an offering, when he is told in a vision by the Archangel Gabriel that his wife, Elizabeth, will bear a son.

In Nazareth, 14-year-old Mary lives a peaceful life with her family, only for that to be ruined as soldiers constantly come to collect taxes; one man, unable to pay, has a third of his land seized and his daughter pressed into debt slavery.

As a direct descendant of King David, Joseph is forced to travel 110 kilometers (68 mi) across Judea's rocky terrain from Nazareth to Bethlehem, his native homeland.

Shocked by this, Herod asks that they visit the newborn Messiah and report the child's location back to him, under the pretense that he, too, would like to worship him, while in fact, he plans to kill the baby for fear of a new king usurping him.

The Magi arrive at the stable where Mary has given birth to Jesus, and they present the infant with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

"[10] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post concluded a positive review of the film stating, "The most intriguing thing about The Nativity Story transpires during the couple's extraordinary personal journey, advancing a radical idea in an otherwise long slog of a cinematic Sunday school lesson: that Jesus became Who He was not only because He was the Son of God, but because He was the son of a good man.

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly noted, "The Nativity Story is a film of tame picture-book sincerity, but that's not the same thing as devotion.