Vienna in the 1920s during the Christmas season. Mary lives with her parents Joseph and Louise, and younger brother Max. She is upset that her parents are attending a party that night, as she wants the whole family to be together for Christmas. Uncle Albert arrives and gifts both her and Max a dollhouse and a nutcracker doll nicknamed NC, whom Mary immediately takes a liking to. When the doll comes to life and grows to human size, he says that he is only a nutcracker because of a curse laid on him by the Rat King, and he takes Mary and Max on a journey to bring the Rat King down.