Mr Ebenezer Scrooge was not a gentleman inclined toward festivity, generosity, or, indeed, people at large. Precise in accounts and resolute in spirit, he conducted his affairs alone after the passing of his equally disagreeable partner, Jacob Marley. It is therefore of some consequence that, upon a Christmas Eve he would much prefer to ignore, Marley should return—bearing a warning not easily dismissed. What follows are three visitations, each more unsettling than the last, compelling Mr Scrooge to consider what he has been, what he is, and what he may yet become. By morning, he comes to understand a truth long neglected: that a life measured only in profit is, in the end, a poor account indeed.