The characters in Henri Rousseau's The Sleeping Gypsy inspired Mordicai Gerstein to create an elegant, beautifully illustrated story about them.

A girl, alone in the desert, lies on the sand and sleeps. But she is not alone for long. A lizard, a rabbit, a turtle and other animals come to scrutinize her, and a lion leaps into the scene and claims her for his own.

A silhouette approaches from the distance. He introduces himself as Henri Rousseau, the dreamer of this dream, who plans to paint a picture of it. The animals pose for the artist but criticize his work with comments like "You've made my nose too big." So the artist removes complainers one by one from the painting, until only the girl and the lion remain.