This classic tale by Charles Dickens opens with an explanation of how it is true that Marley is dead. Jacob Marley was Ebeneezer Scrooge's business partner for many years. He had died exactly seven years ago. When Scrooge is working, his nephew stops by to invite Scrooge to Christmas dinner, which Scrooge consistently declines. His nephew remains cheerful despite Scrooge's repeated response of "Bah, humbug" on anything pleasant, most of all Christmas. After the nephew leaves, a man shows up asking for money to buy food for the poor for a Christmas meal. Once again, Scrooge refuses to give anything, saying that he already supports the jail, the poor house, and other facilities that help provide for impoverished people.

Later a man tried to come to the door of the counting house to sing a Christmas carol, but Scrooge scared him off. Before he let his clerk leave for the day, Scrooge scolded him for requesting a day's wages for not working on Christmas the next day. Scrooge felt as though he was being taken advantage of, but the clerk ran off like a school boy playing games on his way home. Scrooge returned home to his big, dark, empty house, but when he reached the door knocker it had somehow transformed into Marley's face. It immediately changed back, but it had startled Scrooge, and he felt shaken as he walked into the house.

He went up to his bedroom, checking all around to make sure everything was in order, before eating a bowl of gruel by the small fire then changing into his night clothes. He sat in a chair and noticed the bell in the corner of the room started to ring, followed by all the bells in the house, which rang at least a minute before suddenly stopping. Then he heard chains dragging along the floor and footsteps coming up the stairs. The door opened and a ghost resembling Jacob Marley appeared. At first, Scrooge didn't believe the ghost was real, but Jacob spoke to him and let his jaw drop off his face, and Scrooge believed. He asked Jacob why he wore so many chains and why he haunted him in this way. Jacob explained that these were his punishments for the way he behaved during his life. He told Scrooge that he had come to give Scrooge an opportunity to change his ways. Jacob told Scrooge that during the next three nights he would be visited by three spirits. Jacob then led Scrooge to the window where Scrooge looked out and saw phantoms filling the air that disappeared into mist. Scrooge then went to bed and instantly fell asleep.