Inside the mission church, stuffy English missionary Rev.Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley) and his prim, repressed, spinster sister Rose Thayer (Katharine Hepburn) lead the church service.Pedestrians, office workers on lunch break, and Christmas shoppers mingle together in the long view.Slowly, the camera zooms closer and picks out a young, white-faced Mime (Robert Shields), dressed in a black-and-white drum major""s costume, who imitates and parodies unsuspecting bypassers.The charming stories, a dozen in all to represent each of the twelve months of the year, are expressed in the film in its musical numbers.The film was criticized for its preposterous, illogical situation and factual impossibilities that wouldn""t occur in real life.