At the end, the little girl stands smiling at a beautiful red-leafed tree growing in her bedroom.

This little tree that has now beautifully blossomed in the center of her room is symbolized as her reward for the hardships she has been through in her life.

A reviewer in Publishers Weekly was taken with the look and feel and the book: "Strange, melancholy imagery and pessimistic forecasts ('sometimes the day begins/ with nothing to look forward to') weigh like millstones on this slender book, but the appearance of a stunning 'red tree' lifts the burden in the end...Tan's (The Lost Thing) intricate paintings marvelously evoke emotional states, and the red leaf serves as a reminder that creativity can emerge despite abject conditions.

"[2] In Kirkus Reviews the writer noted that Tan "creates an unusual work for the very young that illuminates a dark side too often ignored or unacknowledged in children...The images are obsessively detailed and full of surreal juxtapositions, and the child, who appears in a tiny boat, trapped in a bottle, and in various Bosch-inspired landscapes, lifts her head and smiles only on the last page, when she sees that flame-colored tree.

An imaginative, sad, and ultimately uplifting tale of very few words and extraordinary images.