use XML::Simple;

my $str = "<story>
                <page>
                        <description> desc </description>
                        <image> notExpected.jpg </image>
                        <headline> head </headline>
                </page>
        </story>
        <image>correctImage.jpg</image>";

my $xml = XMLin( "<wrapper>$str</wrapper>" );

my $image = $xml->{image};
print "$_\n" for ref( $image ) ? @{$image} : $image;