Set in rural Quebec during the 1880s, this film tells the story of a young girl and her grandmother who, on Christmas eve, follow the custom of putting out a gift for the Christ child. The gift, a bowl filled with nuts and fruit, is taken by a thief, who later persuades a trapper who had bought him a drink to take him on as an assistant. Gradually the thief begins to change his way of life and at one stage rescues the trapper from a pack of wolves. The following year, when the girl and her grandmother lose the only customer for the lace they have been making, the reformed thief returns and becomes their anonymous benefactor. The film is narrated by actress Genevieve Bujold |