An adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's opera by Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell. The story follows the poet Hoffman (Robert Rounseville) as he attends a performance of the ballerina Stella (Moira Shearer) and proceeds to tell tales of his love for three women: the doll Olympia (Shearer), the courtesan Giuletta (Ludmilla Tcherina) and the frail singer Antonia (Ann Ayars). But as the elder Hoffman recounts the tales from a tavern, his quest for the eternal woman is always thwarted by evil.