diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index c920989..85e488c 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
-  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion> 
+  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson</groupId>
     <artifactId>jackson-base</artifactId>
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
     <javac.target.version>1.8</javac.target.version>
     <scala.version>2.13</scala.version>
     <scala.full.version>2.13.3</scala.full.version>
+    <kotlin.version>1.4.21</kotlin.version>
 
     <!-- 13-Oct-2020, tatu: may need to occasionally work around missing Scala
             module snapshot version
@@ -60,6 +61,15 @@
       <artifactId>scala-library</artifactId>
       <version>${scala.full.version}</version>
     </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.module</groupId>
+      <artifactId>jackson-module-kotlin</artifactId>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
+      <artifactId>kotlin-stdlib-jdk8</artifactId>
+      <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
+    </dependency>
 
     <!-- first, try to ensure dataformats work -->
     <dependency>
@@ -189,7 +199,7 @@
             <exclude>com/fasterxml/jackson/failing/*.java</exclude>
           </excludes>
         </configuration>
-      </plugin>    
+      </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>net.alchim31.maven</groupId>
         <artifactId>scala-maven-plugin</artifactId>
@@ -211,14 +221,38 @@
           </execution>
         </executions>
       </plugin>
+      <plugin>
+        <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
+        <artifactId>kotlin-maven-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
+        <executions>
+          <execution>
+            <id>test-compile</id>
+            <goals>
+              <goal>test-compile</goal>
+            </goals>
+            <configuration>
+              <sourceDirs>
+                <sourceDir>${project.basedir}/src/test/kotlin</sourceDir>
+                <sourceDir>${project.basedir}/src/test/java</sourceDir>
+              </sourceDirs>
+            </configuration>
+          </execution>
+        </executions>
+      </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
         <executions>
           <execution>
-            <phase>compile</phase>
+            <id>default-testCompile</id>
+            <phase>none</phase>
+          </execution>
+          <execution>
+            <id>java-test-compile</id>
+            <phase>test-compile</phase>
             <goals>
-              <goal>compile</goal>
+              <goal>testCompile</goal>
             </goals>
           </execution>
         </executions>
diff --git a/src/test/kotlin/com/fasterxml/jackson/integtest/kotlin/Jackson212MissingConstructorTest.kt b/src/test/kotlin/com/fasterxml/jackson/integtest/kotlin/Jackson212MissingConstructorTest.kt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..25c7edd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/kotlin/com/fasterxml/jackson/integtest/kotlin/Jackson212MissingConstructorTest.kt
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat.xml.JacksonXmlModule
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat.xml.XmlFactory
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat.xml.XmlMapper
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.integtest.BaseTest
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.module.kotlin.registerKotlinModule
+import javax.xml.stream.XMLInputFactory
+
+class Jackson212MissingConstructorTest : BaseTest()
+{
+    /**
+     * Succeeds in Jackson 2.11.x, but fails in Jackson 2.12.0
+     * See https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-module-kotlin/issues/396
+     */
+    fun testMissingConstructor()
+    {
+        val factory = XmlFactory(XMLInputFactory.newInstance())
+        val mapper = XmlMapper(factory, JacksonXmlModule()).registerKotlinModule()
+
+        val xml = "<product><stuff></stuff></product>"
+        val product: Product = mapper.readValue(xml, Product::class.java)
+
+        assertEquals(Product(null), product)
+    }
+
+    private data class Stuff(val str: String?)
+    private data class Product(val stuff: Stuff?)
+}
\ No newline at end of file