In 1986, Nicholas Young, his mother, his aunts, and his cousins travel to London. After a 16-hour flight from Singapore, his aunt Felicity insists that the family walk from the Piccadilly tube station to the hotel, The Calthorpe. On the walk, they get drenched by rain and look disheveled by the time they arrive at the exclusive hotel. The manager, Ormsby, decides that the three Chinese women with their messy children do not belong in their hotel and pretends not to find their reservation when Nick’s mother Eleanor gives him her name. After Nick’s cousin Eddie spills a glass of Coke at the bar, Ormsby asks the family to leave the premises. Nick and his cousin Astrid wonder if they will have to sleep in the park while Felicity, Astrid’s mother, calls her husband, Harry Leong. When she tells him what happened, he calls the Calthorpe’s owner, Lord Rupert Calthorpe-Cavendish-Gore, and buys the hotel from him. The family goes back to the hotel, where they meet Lord Rupert who happily announces to Ormsby that Mrs. Felicity Leong now owns the hotel. After securing their room, Felicity asks Ormsby to leave the premises, just as he did to their family.