Helmuth von Rhaden is a second lieutenant who is bored with his time in the army. He therefore resigns from it. But when he learns that his regiment must leave for the African colonies, he requests to be reinstated, even if it is in a lower position.

Gerhard Lamprecht sketches a cross-section of Germany's new post-war society, with its winners, social climbers, and losers, represented by the social microcosm of an apartment building. The gossip-mad Frau Mierig from the rear building gives the newly-arrived Frau Kaminski, the janitor's wife, a lively initiation into the tenants and their peculiarities.

In Cairo, a quest for a coveted antiquity draws the heroine into a clandestine cult devoted to Osiris. What begins as intrigue turns perilous—abductions, conspiracies, and night-time chases through temples and tombs—until she fights to escape the sect’s grip.

This movie, directed by Richard Oswald, is based on the operetta "Les contes de Hoffmann" by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), which is a genial musical potpourri from various short stories and novels by the Prussian writer, composer, painter, lawyer and judge E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822). While Hoffmann's literary work was longtime considered to be merely fantastical, it was finally researched, in th...