In 1843, despite the fact that Dickens is a successful writer, the failure of his latest book puts his career at a crossroads, until the moment when, struggling with inspiration and confronting reality with his childhood memories, a new character is born in the depths of his troubled mind; an old, lonely, embittered man, so vivid, so human, that a whole world grows around him, a story so inspiring that changed the meaning of Christmas forever.
Keong comes from Hong Kong to visit New York for his uncle's wedding. His uncle runs a market in the Bronx and Keong offers to help out while Uncle is on his honeymoon. During his stay in the Bronx, Keong befriends a neighbor kid and beats up some neighborhood thugs who cause problems at the market. One of those petty thugs in the local gang stumbles into a criminal situation way over his head.
Samuel is a paraplegic young boy living with his mother Elena in "Lake manor," an isolated mansion surrounded by woods. With the strict prohibition to walk away from the mansion, stuck in a family routine, Samuel grows serene but unsatisfied and restless. With the coming of Denise, a teenage maid, he finally finds the strength to oppose his mother’s restraints and to open himself up to the world.