This spirited musical, set at the turn of the century, centers around Melissa Montgomery, a young girl from Georgia who has sailed to Maine to spend Christmas with her grandparents.
In the beginning, she is quite unhappy at being away from her home in the South. Left alone on the sofa to spend her first night, Melissa is frightened by a mouse. She hurls a nutcracker at the intruder, and suddenly the mouse becomes full sized while the nutcracker is transformed into a handsome sailor. Together, the mouse and the sailor show Melissa how Christmas is celebrated in other countries.