Ebenezer Scrooge, a grumpy moneylender from 19th-century London, is against the festivities on Christmas Eve. Refusing to offer money to a panhandler outside his office, he turns down his nephew Fred's Christmas dinner invitation. He brushes off two gentlemen trying to raise money for the underprivileged. Bob Cratchit, his overworked and underpaid employee, asks to take half of Christmas Day off. Scrooge grudgingly agrees, but only because Cratchit loses half a day's pay. Scrooge pays Bob Cratchit a little more to do his laundry. Scrooge heads back home after doing his business.
Upon entering his home, Scrooge is greeted by the specter of his former associate, Jacob Marley. Marley tells Scrooge that his penalty for his avaricious deeds is to bear lengthy, heavy chains in the hereafter. He also threatens Scrooge with the same fate, leaving the old miser terrified and pleading for assistance. Marley then warns Scrooge that he will be visited by three more spirits that night and advises him to follow their advice lest his chains become heavier than Marley's before departing.
The Ghost of Christmas Past visits Scrooge at one o'clock, transporting him back to his early adult years. They go back to his days working under the benevolent Fezzywig. They observe The young Scrooge meets Isabelle at a Christmas party that Fezzywig organizes, and he immediately falls in love with her. But as the Ghost reveals to Scrooge, he eventually begins to love money more than Isabelle, and as a result, when he foreclosed on their honeymoon cottage, Isabelle left him. When a distressed Scrooge asks the Ghost to bring him back to the present, the Ghost complies, but not before reminding him that he was the one who brought this history upon himself.
The enormous, joyous Ghost of Christmas Present then visits Scrooge as he broods over his previous deeds. Scrooge is brought to Bob Cratchit's home by the ghost. When Scrooge discovers that their family of five is eating just enough food for one person for Christmas dinner, he gets very worried, especially once he notices that Bob's sick son, Tiny Tim, is present. A distressed Scrooge begs for an explanation when the ghost indicates that Tiny Tim will die and then vanishes if things don't improve for the household.
The Ghost of Christmas Future then unexpectedly appears to Scrooge in a graveyard, where he is first seen as a silent, shrouded, cigar-smoking apparition. The ghost indicates that Bob and his family are grieving at Tiny Tim's grave when Scrooge asks about Tiny Tim.
A heartbroken Scrooge notices two Weasels, grave diggers, who are laughing that no one showed up for the guy they are burying's funeral as he begs to be changed. Scrooge asks the ghost who owns the grave as the gravediggers depart to rest. After disclosing his own identity as Pete, the Ghost pushes Scrooge into the grave, where his empty coffin opens to reveal the flames of Hell. The gravestone bears Scrooge's name. When the frightened Scrooge falls into the coffin and awakens on Christmas Day in his bedroom, he swears to permanently change his habits.
Delighted that the spirits have granted him a second opportunity, he arranges to make amends with everyone he has mistreated. He decides to go out and bring joy and happiness to Bob's family by surprising them with a turkey supper and Christmas toys before leaving for London. He accepts Fred's offer to Christmas dinner, gives a hefty donation to the gentleman he had previously rejected, and then heads to the Cratchit residence. Initially, adopting a severe expression, Scrooge discloses that he has brought food and presents for them and plans to increase Bob's pay and make him a partner in his counting business. The Cratchits and Scrooges cheerfully celebrate Christmas.
