With its Christmas lights and dusting of snow, Kingston Falls is an idyllic small town — until the gremlins take over. A father returns from Chinatown with an unusual pet, a Mogwai — a gift for his son. The rules are simple: Keep your Mogwai away from water, bright lights and, most importantly, never, never feed him after midnight. But the rules are inadvertently broken, and the consequences multiply at an alarming rate.