Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content, antigay bias, racism, and gender discrimination.

The play begins with Rene Gallimard, a 65-year-old Frenchman and disgraced diplomat, in incarceration. Gallimard thinks wistfully of the title character from Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s 1904 opera Madame Butterfly. Madame Butterfly appears upstage, played by the actor who later portrays Song Liling. Addressing the audience, Gallimard describes his living conditions and explains that he enjoys a certain standard of living because he’s a comedic celebrity. Gallimard never expected his life to go this way because he was unpopular as a child. Now, however, he’s talked about all over the world.

At a party outside the space of Gallimard’s cell, three partygoers gossip about Gallimard, wondering if he’s really unwilling to believe the truth about his case. The truth they allude to concerns an illicit sexual affair. One of the male partygoers suggests that Gallimard had touched his sex partner and “misidentified the equipment” (3). The other male partygoer is incredulous, noting that Gallimard was in the affair for 20 years. The partygoers toast to Gallimard out of pity.