This Italian Christmas story, simply told and illustrated, celebrates the poignant legend of an old woman, Befana, who is said to fly across the sky on Twelfth Night, leaving little cakes and sweets for children as they sleep - even sweeping their rooms. Befana lives a lonely and reclusive life in her Italian village, so intent on sweeping her house and pathways that she misses the opportunity to join the procession of the Three Kings to Bethlehem to witness the birth of Christ. She sets off belatedly and is doomed to repeat her search each year for that one special child.