"The Phantom of the Opera" is the story of a young singer named Christine Daaé and her relationship with two men - Raoul, the young Vicompte de Chagney, and Erik, the mysterious Phantom of the Opera.

Christine is a chorus girl at the Paris Opera House in 1880, whose voice is technically excellent but who has lost all soul and passion for her singing since her father died some years earlier. She begins to be tutored by a mysterious "Angel of Music", who she hears in her dressing room. She believes the Angel to have been sent by her father, and after his lessons she is given a leading role, and astounds everyone by singing with a rapturous passion they have never heard before.

Raoul, a childhood friend, sees her again and falls in love with her, but soon realizes that she is under the sway of another man - her Angel reveals himself to her and leads her through a passageway behind her mirror, down into his home in the cellars of the opera house. He is a genius, a composer and inventor, who has fallen in love with Christine, and shared his love for her by inspiring her voice.