Sándor Korvin, the conductor of the Budapest Opera House tutors his wife Elena as Marguerite in FAUST. She drowns herself after a bad review rigged by the sinister Baron Hunyadi, whose affections she spurned. When confronting Kraus, the critic, Korvin gets into a fight and a fire is started. Korvin kills the critic, only to have his face burned beyond recognition with acid that falls from a shelf above. He is saved from the inferno by a rat catcher, who takes him to a lair underneath the opera. Five years later, he becomes The Phantom of the Opera, a masked figure who causes havoc among the cast. Korvin spots Maria Gianelli, a chorus girl who bears a remarkable resemblance to his dead wife. He tutors her by day, while Maria's love interest, however, is with Hartnell, who has taken over as director of FAUST. Korvin then executes his plan to exact revenge on the Baron and terrorize those who stand in the way of Maria's triumph.