Frederick Barrandov Sr. is imprisoned for fixing clock faces without permission in his home country. He has an uncanny ability to fix things, but the government took his actions as a political statement. His wife helped him organize the whole thing, but Frederick took the blame himself. He spends three years in prison and then moves to Cheshire, where he gets a job as the chief maintenance officer at the Hotel Glissando.

Frederick’s son, Frederick Barrandov Jr. (“Freddy”), does not feel that he lives up to his father, but his family and the hotel expect him to follow in his father’s footsteps. Freddy works as a nursery-school teacher, which disappoints his mother, who handles all of his father’s assignments at the hotel. What his family offers at the hotel is more like a concierge service than just maintenance. They fulfill just about every request, with the only rejected request being one for an iguana-skin wallet. Unlike Freddy, his sister Odette is good at maintenance, and he believes that she should be the one to take over their father’s position. However, Freddy’s mother tells him that he has a week to begin working for Hotel Glissando.

Freddy’s girlfriend,

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