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.

Later that day, Desmond gives Inara a “surprise”: Setting up an iPod and speaker, he cues up a romantic ballad (“Sway”) and leads her in a slow, close dance. Inara realizes that this gesture of love “changes” everything; and that Desmond might be the key to the Butterflies’ escape. However, it will probably come at the price of deception, of lying about her feelings for him. After she goads him with, “My mother taught me to make sure the man always says it first,” he finally tells her, “I love you, Maya, and I swear, I will never hurt you” (204). Though she believes only “part” of that, she gives in to him, and the two of them have sex for the first time.

As the summer winds down, the other girls feel increasingly comfortable around Desmond because they know he won’t make demands of them; and the Gardener is elated that Desmond has come to love the Garden (and Inara) in his own way. The Gardener has even stopped touching Inara sexually because he now regards her as his son’s lover. All the same, Desmond takes no action to help her escape, or even to let her see his punch codes, saying that it would “destroy” his mother and ruin his family’s “name” if it all came out. At a big end-of-summer party, as Avery looks on angrily, Desmond dances giddily with Inara, as if they are in a typical love relationship; later, as the two of them are having sex, Avery comes into the room to watch while masturbating. 

The loud argument that follows brings in the Gardener. Avery shouts at his father that Desmond has never helped “bring in” girls, so he finds it unfair that Desmond should “have” Inara. Afterward, Bliss asks Inara if she loves Desmond, and she denies it, adding that she thinks she might be incapable of love. Her plan is to use Desmond’s love for her to help free the Butterflies; but it might not be enough, seeing as his father has been showing him more respect and pride—which is what he craves—since he began visiting the Garden. The Gardener has been so happy with Desmond’s visits that he hasn’t abducted a new girl in a long time.

After Desmond’s fall semester begins, Inara sees much less of him. However, on one of his visits, the Gardener enlists him to help “preserve” Zara, a girl permanently maimed by Avery. Thinking his father had planned to send her to a doctor, Desmond is horrified to see the Gardener kill her by injecting her with formaldehyde. His father then shows him some of the dead girls in their glass cases. Afterward, Desmond staggers into Inara’s room, sobbing and in shock, and Inara tries to calm him. She knows, however, that he has not yet grasped the full truth: that his father systematically kills every girl at the age of 21, not just the sick or injured ones. Inara chooses not to tell him this yet, because it would completely “break” him. She settles for calling him a “coward” for not doing anything to stop his father and brother, who, with his knowledge and (passive) complicity, abduct, rape, and kill innocent girls. Again, he offers the excuse that it would “kill” his mother. Inara tells Desmond that, in time, it will kill her as well.

Inara tells the agents that the beginning of the end was the arrival of a girl named Keely, just four days ago. The Butterflies, under Inara’s direction, are performing Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with the Gardener and Desmond in attendance. Desmond, however, is still upset over the recent murder of Zara, which genuinely puzzles the Gardener, who argues to Inara that Zara is “fine” because she is no longer in pain. The play is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Avery, a blanket-wrapped bundle over his shoulder. Shouting happily that he has brought them a “new one,” Avery throws down his burden, which turns out to be an unconscious girl—very young, perhaps 12 years old. Her face and head are crusted with gore, and her blood-soaked underwear suggests that she has been brutally raped. The Gardener, in a horrified whisper, asks Avery what he has done. As Inara and Bliss carry the injured child to a bedroom to administer first aid, the Gardener punishes Avery by whipping him with a cane. Shortly later, he agrees to Inara’s demand that no one “touches” the little girl: no tattooing or sex. However, because she has probably seen Avery, he says that she can’t leave the Garden.

After he leaves, Desmond visits, deeply shocked by what Avery did to the girl, but he still makes excuses for his inaction, refusing any personal responsibility for what happened. Bliss screams profanity at him, and Inara tells him contemptuously that he “actively allowed” the girl’s rape and abduction by not going to the police earlier, or allowing them to do so. Pale and shocked, he stumbles away. When the girl recovers consciousness, she tells Inara that her name is Keely Rudolph and that she was abducted from a shopping mall in Sharpsburg, Maryland, on her 12th birthday. Inara passes this information on to Desmond, who claims that he’s been struggling with himself about the girl—and about all of them—and that he’s finally decided to do the “right thing” and call the police. Hoping against hope that he doesn’t backslide, Inara tells all of the girls to return to their rooms. She finds Sirvat, the “odd” girl, pressing herself against Zara’s glass tomb, daydreaming about being dead. Sirvat mentions the strong smell of formaldehyde wafting from the Gardener’s locked laboratory, noting dreamily that it’s a very unstable chemical.

The Garden’s lights flicker, the usual signal that the walls are about to come down, shutting the girls in their rooms. Inara wonders if they should have disobeyed the signal and stayed out in the Garden, to be visible to the police. Again, she has chosen the side of caution: If Desmond loses his nerve, or if the Gardener talks the police out of entering, their disobedience could cost them dearly. Finally, hours later, the walls go back up, and Inara ventures from her room. She finds that things are no better; in fact, they appear to be much worse.