Workaholic Minneapolis mattress salesman Howard Langston loves his wife, Liz, and nine-year-old son, Jamie, but is unable to find time for his family and often put in a bad light by his neighbor, divorcé Ted Maltin, who harbors unrequited feelings for Liz. After missing Jamie's karate class graduation, Howard resolves to redeem himself by fulfilling Jamie's Christmas wish of an action figure of Turbo-Man, a popular television superhero, despite Liz actually having asked him to buy one two weeks earlier, which Howard forgot about. On Christmas Eve, Howard sets out to buy the toy, but finds that every store has sold out, and in the process develops a rivalry with Myron Larabee, a postal worker father with the same ambition.