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.

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.