While collecting butterflies out in the English countryside, a young man named Freddie Clegg (Terence Stamp) stumbles across an old secluded house for sale. Looking through the house on his own, he seems most interested in the basement. He decides to buy the house, its purchase the catalyst for actually carrying out the plan he has devised for her. He wasn't sure if he could carry it out before coming across the house. The "her" in question is a young woman named Miranda Grey (Samantha Eggar), she a student at the Blake School of Art in London. Freddie knows her whereabouts at all times. On the day he decides to carry out his plan, he follows her from school to a pub where she meets with a young man. After that meeting which she seems sad about, she wanders around a secluded urban park. His van is parked so that she would have to get right next to it to pass. As she does, he jumps out of the van, grabs her, knocks her out with chloroform, and gets her into the back of the van. He drives her to his newly purchased house, and carries her still unconscious into the basement. He lays her down onto a bed, and walks out of the basement, bolting the door behind him. The basement door is behind a hidden door masked as a bookcase to the main part of the house. He goes into the kitchen to splash water on his face, when it starts to rain outside. Transfixed, he goes outside to lie in the rain. There, he reminisces about one of many painful encounters he had at the bank where he worked in Reading. He is being tormented by his colleagues, who call him the butterfly boy. His Aunt Annie (Mona Washbourne) visits him at the bank, something she is not supposed to do, telling him that he has won £71,000 in the football pools. Miranda eventually awakens, frightened not knowing where she is. She yells for help while pounding at the door, to no avail. She goes to the sink to splash water on her face. She notices that the makeshift bathroom area (there is no tub or shower) is designed for a woman, with many new women's toiletries available for use. She also finds a shelf filled with art books, and a dresser and closet filled with women's clothes her size. She hears noise at the door. Freddie knocks before he enters. He has brought her a tray of food and returns her purse minus any dangerous items, such as the file and scissors. Not knowing who he is, she suspects that he has kidnapped her for ransom despite she not coming from a rich family. He demonstrates to her that he knows all about her (including that she is not rich) and is attentive to her wants and needs. He leaves, bolting the door behind him. She clamors at the door shouting for him to come back. The next day, Freddie drives into London. He sees news in the papers that she is missing. Back at the house, Freddie brings Miranda more food. She has a more defiant attitude and demands to know who he is and why he brought her here. She now suspects he's a sexual predator. He tells her that he has every respect for her and is a guest at his house. As she runs to try and escape, he grabs her from behind. This act of touching her makes him confess that he is in love with her, something he was not going to tell her until she got to know him better. She is shocked by this revelation. He tells her that he had originally seen her on a bus in Reading where she is from, he even sitting next to her on a couple of occasions. When she got the scholarship to attend Blake in London, he thought he would forget about her, but her absence made him realize she was the only one for him. She then tries to reason with him, stating that he could get into trouble, that she worked hard for the scholarship and that her family must be worried sick. He knows in his heart that the reason she wants to leave is because she is in love with the chap she met at the pub the day of the kidnapping. His ultimate rebuttal is that although people may be looking for her, no one is looking for him. She tries to reason with him one more time, stating that she won't tell anyone, that she'll become his friend and admire him for his chivalry. As he still won't let her go, she runs out the open door to find the next door still locked, with no one behind it to hear her yells for help. Knowing that she is still trapped, her behavior turns to anger. She tells him if her release is dependent upon her falling in love with him, she'll be there until she dies. He walks out quietly carrying the tray of food. As he comes down the next day to bring her more food, he can hear her moaning in pain behind the door. Entering, he finds her on the bed writhing in agony. She says it feels like an appendix problem and that she needs a doctor. Concerned both for her and for his own safety, he vows to go to the corner of the road to the phone box. As he rushes out, he leaves all the doors open. After no longer hearing his footsteps, she, only feigning the illness, quietly gets up and tiptoes to the first door. She sees the second door open to outside. As she approaches, the door shuts closed. Freddie knows she was lying to him. As he approaches her, she slaps him across the face. He has a sad look. She dejectedly walks back into the basement, and slams the door behind her. Coming into the basement, he offers her a bargain: he will let her go in six weeks no questions asked if she starts eating, if she talks to him and if she is nice to him. They negotiate the time frame ultimately to four weeks, the release date specified as June 11th. Despite telling him that he will never get what he ultimately wants which is for her to fall in love with him, she agrees, with conditions of her own: she wants some fresh air, some natural light, specific food (fruit and salad), art materials and most importantly the ability to write a letter to her family. He agrees to her conditions. As she finally starts to devour the food he's brought for her, he leaves, with a new bounce in his step buoyed by her agreeing to stay. About a week later, there is a calendar that Miranda has painted on the brick wall with the art supplies he has provided her. She is crossing off the days to "freedom" day. She asks Freddie, who is sitting there with her, to do something to keep her amused: dance or tell a story. She says all men know dirty stories. He is reluctant. As she is about to tell the filthiest story she knows, he stops her and tells a silly joke, to which she giggles. He then offers her a treat: a bath in the main part of the house. She's excited, even if he is going to tie her hands behind her. Because of her protests, he decides not to gag her. As they walk outside into dusk, she deeply breathes in the fresh air. She pleads to take a short walk before the bath. He agrees. As they take a few steps, he turns around and starts to caress her arms and face. She increasingly looks panicked and eventually starts to scream. She stops when he places his hand on her mouth. Knowing that he has crossed a line, they walk quietly into the house. She tells him that if he decides ever to cross that line with her again, not to do it in a mean way and she won't struggle. But if it does happen, she'll never forgive him and she'll never speak to him again. He understands and agrees. As they enter the bathroom, he unties her hands, leaves the room and closes the door behind him. She notices the door is unlockable, peeks out and sees him sitting in a chair in the hallway. Seeing her, he tells her he will respect her privacy. She goes back into the bathroom, and turns on the water as a noise distraction as she surveys the room. The windows are boarded and bolted and he has removed anything that she can use as a weapon. On the other side of the door, he questions her about the man in the pub, seeing them as an unlikely match. She offers little information beyond stating that he is only a friend. She starts taking her bath when the doorbell rings. Sensing an opportunity, she starts to scream. Freddie quickly rushes into the bathroom and overpowers her, gags her, pulls her out of the tub and manages to tie her up to a pipe. Thinking that she's secure, Freddie espies the visitor from an upstairs window. When he sees the visitor snooping around the basement door, he feels he has no option but to acknowledge his existence. He is his neighbor from down the lane, Colonel Whitcomb (Maurice Dallimore), who thought he would finally introduce himself. The Colonel has noticed some of the modifications he's made to the house, such as the lights in the basement, to which the ancient monuments people of the area would object. As the Colonel enters the house, Miranda can hear he's there and his reference to her captor as "Franklin". She can just reach the bathtub faucet with her foot and tries to turn it on to create some noise. Just as the Colonel is about to leave, Miranda is able to turn on the faucet. As the Colonel hears the noise, Freddie announces that he has a male cousin staying with him. As the Colonel gets distracted by other items in the house, the water starts to overflow from the bathtub. As the Colonel is about ready to leave for the second time, water starts flowing down the stairs which both Freddie and the Colonel notice. Freddie runs up the stairs announcing that it is really his girlfriend staying there. He manages to go into the bathroom to have a discussion with his "girlfriend" about the water problem, while in the meantime turning off the faucet, unplugging the drain and tying Miranda up tighter. Freddie comes back out and announces to the satisfied Colonel that the problem was a faucet handle that came off and that his girlfriend didn't call out because of the embarrassment of being caught unmarried in a compromising position in a man's house. After the Colonel leaves, Freddie unties Miranda. Both are silent, but Freddie brings the towel further up to cover her otherwise unclad body, then leaves her to let her dress in peace. As Miranda exits the bathroom, Freddie is waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. She requests that he tie her hands in front rather than behind since it hurts less. He obliges. Before heading back to the basement, Freddie shows her his massive butterfly collection, which includes some exotic specimens he raised from larvae sent to him from other parts of the world, some breeds which he developed himself, and some still live specimens. This has been his hobby since childhood. Despite seeing the beauty of the collection, she uses the words "kill" and "death" to describe what he's doing. She also then realizes that she is his latest collectable. This collecting is not based on love, but rather an infatuation reminiscent of schoolboys. When he mentions in passing his time working at the bank in Reading, she remembers him in the news about winning the pools. She tries to persuade him to do something more meaningful with his life with those moneys. Days later, Miranda is doing a pencil self-portrait as she looks in the mirror. Freddie asks her if she would consider selling it. She makes the asking price £200. He agrees. She doesn't understand why anyone would want it as she thinks it's garbage. She tears it out of her sketch pad, hands it to him and tells him to keep it with his butterflies. She seems out of sorts, he believes because she has not yet written her letter to her family. Handing her some nondescript stationery, he starts to dictate what she can write in that letter: that she is safe and well looked after. As she is addressing the envelope she tries to distract him by offering him another one of her sketches on the wall for free. As he turns to choose one, she slips another note in the envelope along with the dictated letter. He hands her the chosen sketch which he asks her to sign. She sarcastically signs it "prisoner #..." As he seals the envelope, he feels around its edges and can feel something extra inside. He opens it to see the second note. It basically tells that her captor's name is Gerald Franklin, he being the winner of the football pools. But what he is offended by is the statement that she is frightened. They begin to argue, he accusing that she still looks down on him and so would her friends and her type. As she tries to convince him otherwise, he asks if he could talk to her friends about the book she requested him to buy for her, "The Catcher in the Rye". She says yes. As such, he takes the book off the bed and announces that he will read it. As he exits, he tears up the letter in front of her stating that it would have done no good since they are not in Reading and his real name is not Franklin. On "freedom" day, Miranda is wearing her own clothes as Freddie brings her a tray of food. She is putting things in order in the basement and offers him all the pictures on the walls. She puts on her coat ready to leave. When she reminds him of the day and their agreement, he tells her that she will be released at midnight. As she sits down dejected, they begin to talk about "The Catcher in the Rye". When he mentions that he found it unrealistic, she quietly tells him that that is a valid point of view. That statement and others later concerning a Picasso painting show him that she is being patronizing and condescending. He realizes that they can never be friends on the outside. Feeling like she's jeopardized her freedom, she clamors at the door as he leaves. On either side of the door, both Freddie and Miranda are in tormented and in tears. Freddie heads upstairs to his own bedroom to retrieve a box. He brings it back down for Miranda, telling her it is for this evening. He leaves her alone to let her open the box in peace. Later that evening, Freddie comes down to see that Miranda is wearing the evening dress that he bought for her. They will be having supper upstairs tonight, and he isn't even tying her hands for the walk up. She is pleased. She walks upstairs with enthusiasm to see a candlelit table complete with champagne and caviar. As they talk about life in the immediate future, she notices he has had her sketch framed. As they sit down to eat, she finds a ring box in her napkin. He asks her to marry him, the marriage to be in name only. She would live at the house but be free to do whatever she pleases, even sleep in another bedroom. She replies that that is not marriage; marriage is belonging wholeheartedly to another person. But she does agree to marry him. With a sinister look in his eyes, he states that to get married, they would require witnesses, implying that he is not letting her have her freedom. As she understands that implication, she runs toward any door trying to get out. She eventually runs into the butterfly collection room. He corners her with chloroform in his hands. As she grabs for an insect pin and tries to stab him, he overpowers her and renders her unconscious with the chloroform. He carries her unconscious body out of the room and stops. Instead of taking her to the basement, he instead brings her upstairs into his bedroom. He lays her down on the bed and lies next to her. He gently caresses her body and face before eventually embracing her. When she awakens the next day, she is back in the basement with Freddie seated in a chair next to the bed. He apologizes for the force, but he defends its use since she provoked it. He also claims that he did not take advantage of her in her unconscious state. He says that he has to keep her a little while longer since she has not *tried* to do want he ultimately wants, which is for her to fall in love with him. Later, Miranda is coming out of the upstairs bathroom. She puts out her hands ready for them to be tied, which Freddie does do. She asks if they can sit in the living room instead of heading to the basement. They have a drink of sherry while doing so. She wants them to be friends again. She sits on his lap, places her tied arms around him and asks him to do the same. They kiss on her request. When she asks him to untie her hands, he obliges despite accusing her of pretending. She slowly undresses and she kisses him. As she encourages him to kiss her back, he does so passionately for a few seconds, then stops abruptly. He yells at her that she thinks he will have to let her go if they make love. Comparing her to a whore, he no longer respects her and tears up the drawing of hers he had framed and throws it into the fireplace. After she dresses, he reties her hands together. She then realizes that she is never getting out alive. She directly asks him that question. He does not answer. He opens the door as they walk through the pouring rain toward the basement door. As they approach the door, she sees a shovel. She distracts him by dropping her toiletries on the ground. As he picks them up, she grabs the shovel and hits him over the head. Horrified by his bloodied face the result of what she's done, she instead decides to run. He quickly catches her. While clutching his bloodied head, he drags her yelling and screaming toward the basement door. He throws her on the ground, cold and wet. She looks at him and again is horrified by his bloodied head. As he leaves and locks the door behind him, she knocks over the electric heater. Her hands still tied, she is left in tears, feeling she is soon going to die. Injured, Freddie manages to drive himself to a hospital, where doctors and nurses attend to him. In the basement, Miranda tries to cut the bindings loose from her hands. She is unable to do so. She grabs a blanket off the bed and wraps herself in it. She starts to cough. Three days later, Freddie drives himself home. Bringing a tray of food to the basement, he finds Miranda cold and shivering under the blankets. Although he cuts the bindings off her hands, he can barely look at her after what she did to him. Begging for him not to leave, she collapses on the floor. He goes over to her and carries her onto the bed. Barely conscious, she says that she is afraid to die. He professes his love for her. Seeing that she really is ill, he rushes off for a doctor, all the while leaving both doors open. From her bed, she can see the sunlight, meaning that the exterior door is open. She struggles to get out of bed. Freddie is in town and stops short of the doctor's office. He returns to the basement with pills in hand, the announcement that the doctor will soon be there, and that she will be better soon. But Miranda hears nothing as she is already dead. Freddie clutches his face in a short moment of grief. He goes over to the other side of the room, sits and watches her for the rest of the afternoon, reminiscing about every moment he has spent with her and absorbing the fact that death is forever. He buries her in a homemade coffin under an oak tree on his property. He contemplates the actions leading to her death and the role he may have played in her feeling like she needed to beat him with the shovel. But he comes to the conclusion that Miranda got everything she deserved. His mistake was aiming too high in choosing a girl outside of his social class. He should have chosen a girl who he could teach. As he thinks these thoughts, he drives down the street toward the nurse (Edina Roday) he met in the hospital.
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