Clouds of golden Christmas beetles circle around the lights on every street corner heralding the advent of the holiday season. Little Marms (short for Marmaduqué) would love to join his family in flight, but born without wings all he can do is watch and hope. His Pappa tells him that to dance is to fly and in his mind there is no better teacher than the once great Mademoiselle. Marms would be her dream student except for one small problem. Mademoiselle hates Christmas beetles. She blames them for the terrible accident that destroyed her once stellar career, leaving her to eke out a living teaching the unwilling and the untalented.

But Marms is blind to Mademoiselle’s faults. Even when she tries to eradicate his family, Marms thinks it’s all a mistake. Even when his family and Katie (the secret love of his life) move away, Marms stays, slowly thawing the crust around Mademoiselle’s frozen heart… until… She begins to see this strange little creature as her muse.

Then one day Mademoiselle unintentionally shatters Marms’ world. With nothing and no-one left to lose Marms packs his swag and heads off to find his family. Along the way, he meets a gavotting Grasshopper, a polkaing Ladybug and a marching colony of ants who all help him to realize that he must find his own place in the world. A storm starts to roll in and he hunkers down under a rosebush.

In the new nest, Katie sees the storm brewing and worries about how Marms is coping on his own. Before the rest of the family can stop her, she flies out into the rain and makes her way back to the old nest only to run into a devastated Mademoiselle who is searching for her lost muse.

Katie flies back out into the storm screaming in terror for Marms. He hears her voice and shouts back in reply. She rushes towards him failing to see the Tarantula web strung out above the rosebush. Marms tries to untangle Katie but soon discovers he, too, is in danger of becoming trapped in the sticky snare and so scurries off for help.

Overcoming his fear of birds (whom he believes took his Pappa from him), Marms enlists the help of some Fruit Bats to rescue Katie. But when they return to the web they discover Katie is comatose from the spider venom. Marms begs the Head Bat to fly them to the new nest in the hope that Marms’ Mumma will be able to save Katie.

When they reach the new nest Mumma is both thrilled to see her son and devastated by Katie’s state. While Mumma works on saving Katie, Katie’s brother Dijon and his friend KC misread the situation and, blaming Marms for Katie’s state, cast him out from the new nest.

Yet the music never fades from Marms’ soul and life-affirming dance leads him back home to the studio, sadder and sorrier but stronger. Strong enough to face Mademoiselle. Strong enough to offer his life to save those he loves. Strong enough to dance like he’s never danced before and save not only Katie and his family but also revive Mademoiselle’s flagging career.