During the day, Miss Paola, Paola Cortellesi works as a schoolteacher in a small Italian town, but every night at midnight she transforms into the over 500-year-old Befana, a witch who delivers presents to well-behaved children and brings unusual surprises to naughty ones each year when January 6 arrives. When a dog chews the Rolodex she uses to track the children, she misses a delivery to a boy named Giovanni Rovasio, and that misstep seeds a long shadow over his life.
Twenty-five years pass, and Giovanni Rovasio grows into a scheming antagonist: Mr. Johnny. He kidnaps Paola in an attempt to hijack the toy deliveries for his own gain. The moment is witnessed by Riccardo, a student from Paola’s class, who then rallies five of his classmates to uncover the truth hidden beneath the town’s familiar surfaces. Together they venture into Paola’s storage cellar, where the secret identity of their teacher is revealed. The children are soon captured by Mr. Johnny’s men and are placed inside a trash compactor, but Riccardo acts decisively, dropping his father’s Swiss Army knife into the gears to halt the machine and save his friends.
In a desperate bid to seize control, Mr. Johnny binds Paola to a Christmas tree and sets the tree ablaze, using presents as kindling. At that perilous moment, the clock strikes midnight and Paola reverts to the Befana, unleashing the power needed to break free and take to the sky on her broom. The chase intensifies as Mr. Johnny climbs aboard a jet-propelled hoverboard, forcing a dramatic collision that ends with Paola trapped in a protective bubble inside Mr. Johnny’s toy factory.
Determined to rescue Paola, the children make their way to the factory, but they are quickly captured again. Paola agrees to surrender the cherished letters she has collected from children—letters that hold their heartfelt gift wishes—to Mr. Johnny, and they depart for the mountain where these wishes are kept. In the midst of the danger, Paola’s partner Giacomo returns home, only to discover her missing. His search is guided by Paola’s loyal owl and leads him to Mr. Johnny’s workshop, where he and the children are rescued.
Giacomo and the kids mount a journey to the mountain, retrieving the hidden letters and confronting Mr. Johnny in a climactic confrontation. A tense struggle on the perilous cliff ends with both Mr. Johnny and Paola plummeting off the edge, sealing their fates in a dramatic finale.
The following January 6 brings a glimmer of normalcy as Riccardo discovers his Swiss Army knife in his stocking, and he sees Paola walking through town with Giacomo, a quiet reminder that life has moved on. Yet Mr. Johnny’s vow of vengeance hangs in the air, a quiet threat that promises the past may not stay buried forever.
