The story follows Denise (played by Marie Forså ), a beautiful but restless young woman living on a quiet farm. Fed up with the monotony of rural life and her "boring" boyfriend Freddy, Denise heads to the big city with dreams of becoming a fashion model.
During its run, "Butterflies" received several award nominations, including a 1979 BAFTA TV Award nomination for Best Actress (Margaret Rust).
The title Butterflies likely refers to the fleeting, fragile nature of the relationships — beautiful but short-lived. The tone is described as , introspective , and more serious than typical 1970s British sex comedies.
Essentially, the "good feature" is that the 1975 pilot exists as a standalone piece that perfectly captures the show's premise: a woman feeling invisible in her own life, "fluttering" around the kitchen, questioning if there is more to life than cooking beef bourguignon.
Butterflies follows a young woman named Ann (Ann Michelle) who, after a failed romance, moves into a shared apartment in London. She becomes entangled in a series of complex, often melancholic, sexual and emotional relationships with several men, including Paul (played by the director). The film explores themes of: