A worker at a Russian nuclear facility gets exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. In order to provide for his family, he steals some plutonium and sets out to sell it on Moscow's black market with the help of an incompetent criminal.

Three overlapping stories take place over the course of a week in Bucharest, with characters whose life paths intersect and overlap; often independently of their intentions to emmigrate from Romania, or to stay behind.

Horace, a 8 years old boy, who still believes in Santa Clause, received as a Christmas gift a day at the mall. What ought to be a normal Christmas day turns into an adventure when Horace loses his mother. He mets John, a pickpocket disguised as Santa Clause, who was in the middle of an illegal operation. Unlike the Santas on TV, John doesn't seem to like children. Althought, the boy is convinced that this is the real Santa Clause and tail of it, causing all sorts of trouble as dangerous, as funny. Finally John finds the magic of Christmas and Horace discovers that miracles indeed, occur.