It is a hot August weekend. The Polish-German family reunion of the Brikschinskis is taking place this year at a new hotel in Frankfurt, the Lindley. For Robert, it is especially a welcome break; burdened with a whole sack full of problems, he hopes to find distraction and relaxation during his days away from Berlin. And he certainly finds it. He not only falls in love with a Russian-Jewish artist and enjoys hallucinogenic mushrooms that the hotel offers to special friends, but he also makes the acquaintance of British engineer William Lindley in the basement of a Vietnamese bar, who, however, built the Frankfurt sewer system back in the 19th century. By his side, he encounters old friends and the deceased in the underground of the city, while his father passes away in the hotel, the body disappears, and his mother faints.