Francis “Frank” Xavier Cross is the youngest president in IBC TV for a reason: he’s powerful, successful, and relentless. He’s also selfish, heartless, and cruel. He fires an employee, Elliot, on Christmas Eve for offering his opinion and treats his single-mom secretary, Grace, like dirt. Frank hates Christmas except for the TV ratings it can bring him on his next big project: a star-studded, live production of Scrooge on Christmas Eve. However, on December 23rd, Frank is visited by the very dead ghost of his former boss, Lew, who tells him he regrets the mistakes he made in his own life, and that he is there to warn Frank to change his ways before it’s too late and he winds up a “worm feast.” Lew tells Frank he’s going to be visited by three ghosts. Frank is at first disbelieving, then terrified, and calls up his old girlfriend, Claire, leaving her a message to call him back at any hour.

The next day, Frank is heavy into the preparation for Scrooge when Claire shows up at the soundstage. They chat, and Claire says she has to be going, but gives Frank her card, telling him to call her if “it happens again.” Frank goes for lunch with his boss, and starts having wild hallucinations. He steps out for some air and winds up in a taxi with the Ghost of Christmas Past, who takes him to his childhood home. Frank is shown that as a child, his mother was kind and loving to him, but his father was cold and callous. They jump forward a few years, revisiting how Frank and Claire first met and fell in love, and how they eventually parted when Frank chose his career over Claire.

Back in the present, Frank is racked with regret at losing Claire, and goes to the homeless shelter she volunteers at to try to win her back. Once he gets there, he becomes frustrated at what he perceives is Claire choosing her work over him, and he once did to her, and leaves angrily as Claire calls after him.

Frank returns to the studio where he meets the fairy-like but violent Ghost of Christmas Present. She shows him his brother and sister-in-law at a Christmas party they are hosting, and Frank’s brother, James, states how he will never give up on Frank no matter how bad he gets, because he’s his brother and he loves him. The Ghost shows Frank Grace and her family, and that even though they are dirt poor, their family is full of joy and love for each other. The Ghost leaves Frank alone in a sewer, where he discovers the frozen corpse of Herman, a man at Claire’s homeless shelter who had asked him for help.

Frank winds up back at the studio once more, right as Scrooge is getting ready to go on the air. As Frank sits in his office watching the show, he is attacked by his former employee, Elliot, who threatens to kill him with a shotgun. Escaping into the elevator, Frank meets the final ghost, the Ghost of Christmas Future. The ghost shows Frank that Grace’s silent son, Calvin, has wound up in a mental institution. Claire has become cold and heartless after listening to advice Frank gave her about “scraping them off.” The final future he is shown is his own funeral, attended only by James and his wife Wendy before his coffin is cremated with him inside. Frank hysterically screams and begs for his life, only to wake up back in the elevator with Elliot and his shotgun.

Frank repents immediately, telling Elliot he will hire him back at twice his original salary and make him his vice president in charge of programming. The two head to the studio to where they take over the Scrooge production, putting Frank live on the air where he encourages people to embrace Christmas and their fellow man. Frank apologizes to James, who is watching, telling him he “was right about everything,” and also reaches out to Claire, asking her “It’s not too late, is it?” Claire is moved and catches a taxi (driven by the Ghost of Christmas Past) to the IBC building where they are reunited. Grace’s son Calvin finishes off the night telling Frank to say, “God bless us, everyone,” the first words he has spoken in five years. The cast and crew all sing and celebrate together.