A writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel's glorious years under an exceptional concierge.
At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity.
Virgil Oldman, a wealthy art auctioneer, takes the help of a young artificer, Robert, to understand and woo Claire Ibbetson, a young heiress, who hires him to auction off an antique collection.