Act I - The story begins during a town festival. The town is celebrating a new town bell that is due to arrive in the coming days. Anyone who wants to be married on that day will be awarded with a special gift, a bag of money. Swanilda is engaged to Franz and plans to marry during the festival. Swanilda asks Franz if he loves her and he answers yes, but she doesn't feel it is heartfelt. She becomes unhappy with Franz because he seems to be paying more attention to a girl named Coppelia who sits on Dr. Coppelius' (a toymaker) balcony. She spends all of her time reading and gives no one her attention. Franz is mesmerized by her beauty and is determined to get her attention. Swanilda is deeply hurt by his distractions and feels he does not love her. Despite him saying he loves her, she no longer trusts his words. Instead she will hold up a shaft of wheat to her ear and if it rattles when she shakes it, then she will know that he loves her. When she does this however, it does not rattle. When Franz does the same thing he tells her it does rattle. She does not believe him and runs away heartbroken.

When Dr. Coppelius leaves his house, he is heckled by a group of small children. After running them off he finally goes on his way not knowing that he dropped his keys in the process. Swanilda finds his keys and is determined to find out more about Coppelia. She and her friends decide to go inside Dr. Coppelius' house. Meanwhile, Franz develops his own plan to meet Coppelia. He climbs up a ladder to the balcony to see Coppelia.

Act II - Swanilda and her friends find themselves in a large room filled with people, but these people aren't moving. The girls discover that these are not people, but life-size mechanical dolls. They quickly wind them up and watch them move. During her search, Swanilda finds Coppelia behind a curtain and discovers that she is also a doll.

When Dr. Coppelius returns home, he finds the girls in his house. He becomes angry, not only because the girls got into his house, but they also messed up his workroom.  The girls angrily run off.  Dr. Coppelius begins cleaning up the mess and notices Franz coming into the window. Instead of shooing him away, he invites him in. Dr. Coppelius wants to bring Coppelia to life and in order to do that, he needs a human life. His magic will take Franz's life and transfer it to Coppelia.

Dr. Coppelius gives Franz  some wine mixed with a sleeping powder and Franz begins to fall asleep. Dr. Coppelius then starts his magic spell.

When Dr. Coppelius ran the girls off, Swanilda stayed hiding behind a curtain. Swanilda dresses up in Coppelia's clothes and pretends to come to life. She wakes up Franz and both quickly escape by winding up all the mechanical dolls. Dr. Coppelius becomes very sad when he finds a lifeless Coppelia behind the curtain.

Act lll - It is Swanilda and Franz's wedding day.  As they start to say their vows, an angry Dr. Coppelius shows up. Feeling badly for causing such a mess, Swanilda offers Dr. Coppelius the gift she received, her bag of money, in return for his forgiveness. Swanilda's father tells Swanilda to keep her gift and he pays Dr. Coppelius instead because is was a special day. Swanilda and Franz get married and the entire town celebrates.