Six-year-old girl Nadia is sick, according to Dr. Mikhail Petrovich, "indifference to life." The only way to cure her is to cheer. But the girl does not want anything, and every day she is becoming weaker.

So she lies all days and whole nights, quiet, sad. Sometimes she dozes off for half an hour, but in a dream she sees something gray, long, dull, like an autumn rain.

One day she asks for an elephant. Half an hour later, dad brings her an “expensive beautiful toy” - a gray elephant, which he waves his tail and shakes his head. But the girl wants the real, not the toy. Then dad goes to the menagerie and begs the German master to let Tommy's elephant go to their house. He talks about his sick daughter, and the owner of the menagerie allows the elephant to be visited.

At night, the elephant is led into the house.

In a white blanket, he importantly walks along the very middle of the street, shakes his head and then twists, then develops a trunk.

To lure him to the second floor, dad buys a pistachio cake. In the morning, Nadia is told that the elephant has arrived, is being fed and taken to the elephant in a wheelchair. The girl is not afraid of the elephant, they have tea together: the girl drinks tea, the elephant - sugar water with rolls. Nadia introduces the dolls to Tommy, shows a picture book. Friends have lunch together. In the evening, Nadia does not tear off the elephant, she falls asleep next to him

That night, Nadia dreams that she married Tommy, and they have many children, small, funny little elephants. The elephant, who was taken to the menagerie at night, also sees in a dream a sweet, affectionate girl.

In the morning, the girl wakes up peppy, learns that the elephant has left and called her to visit, and asks to convey that she is already completely healthy.