Madame Zeroni is Zero's (Hector Zeroni) great great great grandmother. Madame Zeroni was a Gypsy. Elya Yelnats asked her help in wooing the empty-headed but beautiful Myra Menke. In summary, the bargain was that if Madame Zeroni would give Elya a pig so he could offer it as dowry for Myra's hand in marriage, to compete with a rival suitor, Igor Barkov's fattest pig. Unfortunately, when Elya finally learned that he wasted his time with the flower-pot-headed Myra Menke, he left his pig as a wedding present, and signed up on a boat heading to America, to meet Madame Zeroni's son.