Santa cannot find his reindeer and Christmas Eve is running out. The journey to recover them takes him from the North Pole through frozen tundra, into ice caves, across suburban neighborhoods, and into the city. There is a complication: Santa is not the athlete he once was — he was the state 400-meter champion in 1943, but the decades since have added a substantial amount of weight. His energy depletes as he travels, and if it drops too low, the reindeer go unfound and the deliveries do not happen.