Little boy Artem with his parents recently moved from a big city to a small Carpathian village. Holidays are coming and, like all children, Artem is waiting for St. Nicholas. And one day Nicholas appears in front of him by his own person. But in fact he's not Saint at all, under his guise an ordinary thief hides himself. Artem and his friends will show all their courage, ingenuity and agility to expose the villain.

In the remote Ukrainian village of Dykanka, handsome but poor Vakula loves the beautiful Oksana, but she's holding out for a wealthy prince, and her father doesn't think much of him either. On Christmas Eve she sends him on a ridiculous quest for dancing shoes that takes him all the way to the imperial palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with the help of some odd characters from the village and the Devil himself.