The Butterfly Garden

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual violence and harassment, rape, death, kidnapping, child sexual abuse, and suicidal ideation.



Danelle, whose tattooed face bears witness to her short-lived attempts to kowtow to the Gardener, has become Inara’s helper in her therapeutic work with other girls, e.g., newcomers as well as distraught Butterflies. With the start of Desmond’s romance with Inara, his father has shown a “corresponding” sexual interest in her, now visiting her for sex almost every day, though never when his son is in the Garden. Trouble arrives in the form of a new Butterfly named Tereza, who has a very rough adjustment to the Garden, almost having a mental health crisis, which would mean death to her. Luckily, Desmond comes to the rescue, playing a series of piano pieces for the girl, who herself is a skilled pianist, until she recovers from her state of shock and tremblingly joins him in a duet. Desmond, however, will not admit to himself that he saved her from death. Inara wishes the gallery of dead girls were not kept hidden from him by his father; seeing them might finally make him confront everything he’s been denying.