It is Christmas Eve, and the Stahlbaum family is happily unwrapping their Christmas gifts. After all the merriment, seven-year-old Marie receives a very special gift--a mysterious Nutcracker--from her beloved Godfather Drosselmeier. When the house falls dark and silent, Marie discovers that this is no ordinary Nutcracker, but Godfather Drosselmeier's nephew, who was transformed into a wooden toy by the curse of the evil Madame Mouserink. To break the curse, the Nutcracker must win the love of Marie and defeat the malicious, seven-headed Mouse King.—Anonymous