Set in early 20th-century Japan, the story tells of Ciòciò-san, a very young geisha, and Lieutenant Pinkerton, a U.S. Naval officer entranced by her beauty. Pinkerton will do anything to have her and takes part in a marriage ceremony but, inevitably, he returns to America. Butterfly never loses faith that one day her love will return, and she raises their child alone, rejecting other suitors. Three years later, Pinkerton does reappear but, devastatingly, with an American wife.

One of the greatest operas ever written, Madama Butterfly, is a supreme tragic love story.