A highly stereoselective synthesis of fluorinated 1,3-disubstituted isoindolines is described. To this end, a tandem reaction consisting of a diastereoselective addition of fluorinated nucleophiles to Ellman’s N-(tert-butanesulfinyl)imines followed by an intramolecular aza-Michael reaction has been developed. This strategy allows for the construction of isoindolines bearing several degrees of fluorination
iminium ion species under the catalysis of chiral amines, which facilitates the Diels–Alder cycloaddition reaction with the concurrently generated trienamines between dienals and amine catalysts in a regioselectivity umpolung manner. A cascade intramolecular aldol reaction was followed, finally furnishing polyhydrophenanthrene frameworks with excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivity.