Della has saved for months to buy the perfect gift for her beloved husband, Jim. But $1.87 is the miserable sum of her efforts, and it's now Christmas Eve. There is only one thing left to do: sell her most treasured possession, her beautiful knee-length hair. But when Jim returns home he is aghast his gift for her is the tortoiseshell combs she has coveted for so long! And to buy them he has sold his precious gold pocket-watch ... for which Della has just sacrificed her hair to buy a perfect platinum chain!