This special is about a reindeer that is born with a red light-up nose instead of a plain nose. Once everybody found out about it, they made fun of him. Tired of hearing the laughter, Rudolph ran away. 

 On his journey he ran into Herbie, an elf who wanted to be a dentist instead of a toy maker. Both being misfits, they ran away together. One night they were frightened by a large noise. The noise was Yukon Cornelius, a traveling digger in search of silver and gold. The three joined up and wound up having to flee from the Abominable Snowman. They jumped onto a piece of ice which was cut from the mainland. 

The ice drift brought them to the Island of Misfit Toys. Here they met the Misfit Toys and King Moonracer. He allowed them to stay the night, and while they were all asleep, Rudolph snuck out to keep them safe while he went back to the mainland where the snowman was waiting. 

On his return he found out that Clarice and Rudolph's parents were trapped by the snowman in his cave. Rudolph's attempt to rescue them failed when he was knocked unconscious, but his friends showed up in time and rescued them. Yukon and the snowman went over a cliff, and were thought dead. 

Rudolph and his family returned to Christmas town and helped the preparations for Christmas Eve. Yukon showed up at the door with the snowman, who now decided to be kind. A huge storm came in that was so thick nobody could see. Santa WISHED that Rudolph's bright nose could cut through the storm except he was murdered.  Who killed Rudolph!