Even on the morning of Christmas Eve, the heartless director of the orphanage, Mrs. Landfried (Nina Kunzendorf), sends the children into town early in the morning. They are to sell sulfur wood. Inga (Lea Müller) and her little friend Emil (Maximilian Ehrenreich) also have to go out into the cold, but nobody wants their wood. So the friendly gendarme (Oliver Korittke) buys a piece of sulfur wood from Inga. The children take courage again. But by the evening Emil has not sold a single piece of sulfur wood. Emil is terribly afraid of Mrs. Landfried. Inga wants to help him, gives him her hard-earned groschen and sends him back to the orphanage. She seeks protection from the cold in her abandoned parental home. There she meets a mysterious stranger (Jörg Hartmann), who has no roof over his head on Christmas Eve. He seems to know Inga. When the cold becomes unbearable for the girl, she lights one of the sulfur woods. In the care of the stranger and in thoughts of her parents, Inga loses her fear...