This is an anthology film with three stories. In "Portrait of a Murderer", a female artist draws sketches of a mysterious neighbor. She is unaware that the man is a murderer. "Duel at Dawn" is set in 1880s Austria. Two military officers fight a duel, with the survivor free to claim the heart of their shared love interest. "The Midas Touch" is a romance story of sorts. Jonah Watson is a successful American businessman, but is disgruntled with his life. He emigrates to England to start a new life, and works as a common servant. But he falls in love with a cockney maid who dreams of marrying into wealth.

Michael Powell teamed with actor James Mason (who also co-produced) to make a film loosely based on the life of controversial Australian artist Norman Lindsay. Age Of Consent stars Mason as a jaded painter who heads Down Under looking for a way to revitalize his creative soul. His self-imposed exile is interrupted by Cora, an uninhibited young woman on her own journey of self-discovery. The Age of Consent (1969), is Powell's final film, centers on James Mason as a disenchanted painter who finds a new muse in a tropical island model (a radiant and sensual, often nude Helen Mirren, in her first movie role).