'Pure motor hemiplegia' is a common stroke syndrome defined by Fisher as paralysis of face, arm, and leg on one side, unaccompanied by sensory signs, visual field defect, aphasia, or apractognosia. It occurs almost exclusively in hypertensive patients and carried a good prognosis. We report a case of a normotensive patient in whom pure motor hemiplegia was the presenting feature, not of a cerebrovascular syndrome, but of a pontine glioblastoma. We note that brain-stem tumours may masquerade as brain-stem strokes.