According to Viktor Slavkin, "If Hoffmann did not have a world of dreams and fantasies, he would inevitably get drunk." The script tried to unearth Hoffman's alleged alter ego Johannes Kreisler, the mysterious, volatile composer whom Hoffman himself illustrated. The character has appeared in all of the novels described in the film. The film managed to combine discordant characters from Hoffman's corpus such as Tiny Tsakhes, the Nutcracker, and the Sandman into a single narrative. A review found the approach to be "organic" to the point where the differences are never apparent. The film makers offered the viewer that Hoffman was truly yearning for Atlantis through a magical love story hinging upon a trichotomy destiny. One of the three love stories features the fictional automaton Olympia described in the story "The Sandman." The other heroines of the film include consul's daughter Veronica, and Serpentina. The three women at once embody the ideal of beauty in their own way, and Ernst will have to believe and choose the one that will bring him happiness. A duel of fates between Ernst and his character Sandman is the central conflict of the story whom Ernst knew ever since he was a child when he heard his nanny tell the tale of the nocturnal visitor who sprinkles sand in the eyes of children.