An idyllic scene of couples dancing in a park gives way to a violent tableau of Ancient Egyptian design; the Three Graces, standing in classical poses, become three frog-like monsters and then three halberdiers.
Awaking briefly, the Baron checks his reflection in a mirror to ensure all is well, then drifts back into dreams: his bed seems to dance about in an Orientalist landscape, and then it is attacked by giant grasshopper and a clown.
Lifting a heavy piece of furniture, the Baron hurls it toward the dreams, breaking the mirror and sending him falling down into the outdoors, where he is hooked on an iron fence and has to be rescued.
Méliès greatly admired the Baron Munchausen stories created by Rudolf Erich Raspe, and may have used them as inspiration for his celebrated film A Trip to the Moon.
The effect was not produced with a real mirror, which would have reflected the studio windows and the camera; instead, there were two actors on the set, one of whom mimicked the other's gestures from the opposite side of the imaginary "glass."
[3] The film was shown in a cinema, possibly for the first time, in 1943; the exhibitor was André Robert, who obtained permission for the screenings from Méliès's widow, Jehanne d'Alcy.