In this innovative version of the world famous Christmas story, The Secret of the Nutcracker tells of 12 year-old Clara's magical journey on Christmas Eve to find her father in a World War II Prisoner of War camp. Along with her mother and her two brothers, they long for some word on him, which eventually comes from an unexpected source the mysterious and magical stranger Drosselmeyer, who befriends Clara and encourages her to believe that miracles can happen.

Beginning just after the bloody Sioux victory over General Custer at Little Big Horn, the story is told through two unique perspectives: Charles Eastman, a young, white-educated Sioux doctor held up as living proof of the alleged success of assimilation, and Sitting Bull the proud Lakota chief whose tribe won the American Indians’ last major victory at Little Big Horn.