Withdrawn, uneducated and unloved, Frederick collects butterflies and takes photographs. A chance pools win enables him to capture the art student Miranda and keep her in the cellar of the Sussex house he jas bought with the windfall. The situation is seen first from the collector's point of view: he thinks the chloroform pad no more vicious than his butterfly net, and patiently waits for the barriers of class and taste that inhibit their love to break down the limbo of their isolation. She, the creator, desperate for her freedom, tries to understand him but cannot banish her contempt for everything anti-life that he stands for.