A film that had little success with the general public, M. Butterfly has a profile distinct from the rest of Cronenberg’s filmography. Inspired by a real-life case, the film follows French diplomat René Gallimard (Jeremy Irons), who, sent to Peking at the end of the 1960s, falls in love with the opera singer Song Liling (John Lone). But Song is not who she says she is, and soon a web of love and betrayal forms, full of cultural collisions and social codes.