This beautiful Christmas story, set in Italy during the 1950s, is about a potter's son who goes down the mountain with his father shortly before Christmas to sell pots, vases, and platters. They have high hopes of bringing home enough money for a nice Christmas dinner, perhaps enough for a pair of real shoes for Dino, and even a rocket for him to set off with the other boys on Christmas Eve.

The trip does not turn out as planned, it goes from bad to worse until Dino starts home in tears. As he trudges up the mountainside, something happens. Something which lights up Dino's heart and gives us a new view of the Christmas story.