Dusseldorf at the beginning of the 1970s. The young and introverted Beuys-student Hans meets Ruth, a youthful stray who lives in a city park. Fascinated by her, Hans makes Ruth the motif of his video art and accommodates her in his studio. As she quickly adopts to the art scene, Hans fears that she may slip from his hands and locks her up. He believes that he can study the girl's mystery within the test laboratory of art. In this experimental process, Hans inextricably confuses art and real life. The fiction feature The Sleeping Girl by artist and auteur filmmaker Rainer Kirberg consequently tells its boy-meets-girl story through the camera of the art student Hans. The film is a fascinating crossover of classical narrative with self-referential video art.