The dapper, 68-year-old Anthony Peardew, after riding a local London train from Brighton, arrives at his rambling Victorian home in the center of the city. The home, which he calls Padua after St. Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of lost things, is his sanctuary. A reclusive semi-retired writer, Anthony lives alone. His study is packed with hundreds of lost items, dropped unintentionally, that he has found all over London. For more than 40 years, Anthony has dedicated his life to gathering these items and carefully tagging them in the hopes of returning them someday to their owners. Today he found a cookie tin left on the train. When he opens it, he finds that it appears to contain cremains. He fixes himself his usual gin and lime and puts on his favorite record, Al Bowlly’s classic recording of “The Very Thought of You,” a song that reminds him of Therese, the love of his life, who was killed in a car accident some 40 years earlier just days before they were to be married.

Over the last six years, Anthony has come to rely on Laura, his housekeeper and personal assistant, along with Freddy, the gardener, to run the day-to-day operations of Padua.