It's Christmas Eve in New York City. Jimmy Dugan, nicknamed Fingers, is an ex-con just released from prison. He doesn't have much Christmas spirit, believing it to be a holiday now geared toward consumerism, he having no money to buy anything. The police are tailing him believing he will revert to his criminal ways. In his movements, Jimmy is able to save a young woman from committing suicide. She tells him her reason for not wanting to live is because the Christmas season only intensifies her feeling of loneliness, as she has no one in the world, especially as she doesn't know where her boyfriend is. Jimmy wants to help her at least have a hot meal this day. As such, he needs to go back to his criminal ways to get the money to buy that meal. In the process, Jimmy may inadvertently help himself in discovering a spirit of Christmas.
—Huggo