El Sr. Gustave H., un legendario conserje de un famoso hotel europeo de entreguerras, entabla amistad con Zero Moustafa, un joven empleado al que convierte en su protegido. La historia trata sobre el robo y la recuperación de una pintura renacentista de valor incalculable y sobre la batalla que enfrenta a los miembros de una familia por una inmensa fortuna. Como telón de fondo, los levantamientos que transformaron Europa durante la primera mitad del siglo XX.
Next to the home of Heinz and Hilde Becker is the villa of the company boss Dr. Bernhard Schenkberg and his wife, who he called "Püppchen". While Schenkberg always politely strives for a good neighborly relationship, his elegant, arrogant wife looks down contemptuously on the grumpy, constantly do-it-yourself Heinz and the conservative, naive housewife Hilde.
The story of a woman who goes on strike: in a fit of anarchic revolt she simply decides to stay in bed – and refuses, like some distaff Oblomov, to see to the thousand and one chores that await her.
