This fairy tale will acquaint the little reader with the contrast of what is natural and what is artificial, what occurs in nature, and what is made by man, and how the beauty of the former can be superior to the latter.

This is conveyed through a mechanical bird and a real nightingale. The ability of the artificial bird is to repeatedly play the same melodic tune, whereas the real bird sings different tunes, and it these songs that save the emperor and fends off death at his most difficult hour. All the while the mechanical clockwork of the artificial bird remains silent.