to an attempt by Jacob Knowlton to have his sister Lucy murdered, leaving him with sole ownership of the hotel. He plans to demolish it, partly to support his son's election campaign, but knows that his sister would never allow it. The body is that of Lucy and Jacob's old friend Peter Miflin, whose daughter was killed when Jacob's son got drunk and drove the car into a river. News of her death was hushed up. In the meantime, guests come and go at the hotel, each with his or her own story like a cross-section of their lives. Some have affairs, one couple tries to sell a baby, there is even a case of spontaneous human combustion. A young girl whose mother dies at the hotel successfully covers up the death by hiring another guest as her "father." The chambermaids and bellhops also have complex relationship problems, which are made worse for Adelaide and Jeremy by Jeremy's constant scheming to turn an additional illicit buck at the expense of the guests. Jenny's uneasiness over what she has witnessed also factors into many of the vignettes. In the fifth episode, it becomes apparent that many if not all of these stories are actually the novel the writer has written instead of the history he was supposed to write. The writer blames the closed doors of the hotel, which told him nothing, so he had to make things up. Lucy agrees to read the novel. If it is good enough, she will tear up his bar bill, which was not included under the terms of room and board. With that, the story plunges back into other guest vignettes, while continuing to follow Jenny and the other hotel staff. The novel does not end with the operatic death and funeral of another guest, because the writer thinks that would be too maudlin. A formerly famous opera singer was overcome with emotion and died when a famed tenor came to serenade her. All the staff and guests at the hotel break into operatic song at her funeral. Jenny has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. When one of the guests learns of his father's death over the telephone, she is present to console him. It turns out that the guest is now the King of Saudi Arabia, and she will become his queen. It turns out that