The Time of Butterflies

Jenda and his friend Lucy are the only ones in the classroom who live in a development of villas. A group of their classmates mocks them, calling them bride and groom. They even attack Jenda, emptying his schoolbag on the pavement. The boy is mostly cared for by his grandfather because his father is a ship’s captain and is at sea most of the time and his mother, a dentist, often returns from her consulting room late at night. An unknown black foreigner brings Jenda a gift from his father. It is cocoons of exotic butterflies. Jenda places them in a nest of salad leaves in a kilner jar but separates the largest and most unusual one. He searches for advice from his good friend, the natural scientist Professor Renc. The old man is in a wheelchair but is extremely vigorous and even creates timelapse films of flowers. He recommends the boy to keep the cocoons warm and calm. The hatched butterflies also include a small winged creature which laughs in a high-pitched voice and moreover turns into a puppet every time someone unknown enters the room. Jenda finds its picture in the professor’s old encyclopaedia. The caption reads “Physica curiosa – Nympha lepidopthera”. Renc concludes that the creature is a rare phenomenon – a nymph. Jenda takes the rest of the butterflies to a botanical garden and names the nymph Urugu. The nymph even makes him forget about Lucy. The mysterious Urugu gives him a magical performance in which things come alive and change. Then the nymph confesses to Jenda that she can appear to only one person to whom she brings good luck. But she faces a serious danger – she is helpless if exposed to the light of the full moon. Jenda takes Urugu to school. The nymph cannot help herself and causes a stir with her magic powers. Jenda is punished by a home confinement and his mother gives the puppet, into which the nymph has turned, to its supposed owner, Lucy. But Jenda gets the nymph back and stays with her at home, successfully pretending to suffer from sore throat. Together, they make a model airplane and Jenda shows it off to the boys at school. Urugu visits the botanical garden but finds her butterfly friends dead, killed by an assistant. Jenda finds the nymph weeping after she burnt their bodies in a heater. Jenda’s father returns from abroad. The family celebrates his return in the evening and Lucy and her parents are also invited. Everybody is having good gime and Jenda forgets about the nymph who is all alone in the room. When Jenda comes in to share the joy of his father’s return, he sees the nymph flying out of an open window to the moon. The boy tells the professor about his sorrow. The old man explains that this kind of experience never lasts long and also reminds him about Lucy, who is waiting in front of the house. Jenda promises the newly found friend that he will make a large airplane for them instead of just a model.