Charlotte has travelled across the ocean with her mother and father to their new home in France, where she discovers she has a lot to adjust to. The food tastes different, she has to make new friends, and perhaps biggest of all, she has to learn to speak a new language. Her feelings of being different and left out are made worse when Colette, a girl in her class at school, calls her "the stranger". Now Christmas is coming and Charlotte is swept up in the town's preparations, but she's disappointed when her mother tells her they won't be participating because they are Jewish. At school, they all bring in a gift for Christmas, but Colette does not because, it turns out, she is poor. Charlotte, inspired by the gifts of the Magi, gets over her anger at Colette and asks her father if they can give Colette's family all the trappings of Christmas, as a gift. In thanks, Colette and her family invite Charlotte's family to share dinner with them and Charlotte gets to experience Christmas after all.