The film recounts how Charles Dickens created the classic holiday fable, A Christmas Carol. October 1843. Charles Dickens was broke and distressed. Despite early success, his last three books had failed. Rejected by his publishers, he set out to write and self-publish a book he hoped would keep his family afloat. This is the story of the six fever-pitched weeks in which Dickens created A Christmas Carol, the masterpiece that changed the holiday into the merry family event we know today.