It opens on a chilly night in 1991. Is this supposed to be New York City? That kind of looked like the Empire State Building in the background. Anyway, a couple of boys shiver as they beg for money. Yeah, I think this is supposed to be NYC, but where'd those cobble stone streets come from?
The boys, along with other homeless kids, report back to their Random White Guy boss. It's Oliver Twist with a twist. (Oddly, the movie Oliver was playing on TV this morning. Coincidence?) The boys didn't come up with much and now must face punishment. The oldest of the two Korean kids tries to shield the young one from the blows. The evil Random White (Possibly Latino) Guy drags the youngest, Ji Won, away, leaving the oldest, Jayden, to cry after him.
Random White Guy beats Ji Won to a bloody pulp. Jayden is brought in to see the results. Random White Guy pulls out a gun and holds it sideways (a pet peeve of mine) preparing to shoot the bloody boy. Jayden throws himself over the child. Fade to black and a gunshot. When the lights come back on, Random White Guy is the one dead and Jayden is holding the gun (up correctly). How'd he get the gun away from the big guy? We may never know.
Suddenly a door slides open and bright light floods the abandoned building. Jayden squints as out of the light steps a man with a cane. Is it Fagin?
When next we see Jayden he's just waking up in this super opulent room that's bigger than my house. By God, this is Oliver Twist! Standing by the window is the man with the cane, Lee Joong Goo (played by the one and only Lee Duk Hwa). Fagin - I mean, Joong Goo, explains to Jayden how the boy is actually the son of a powerful hotel chairman, only his father tossed him aside for some reason. Luckily Fagin - I mean, Joong Goo, is willing to take Jayden away from all this begging and being beaten and take the boy into the luxury world of hotels.
(You may be wondering, what about Ji Won? Some think the boy was beaten to death. Not me. This is a Kdrama. Dead people are always showing back up alive, usually towards the end of the run.)
Time skip to Jayden, who has changed his name to Cha Jae Wan, being played by Lee Dong Wok. He's general manager of the Hotel Ciel, which is preparing to open its indoor water park. The chairman of the hotel, Ah Sung Won (played by Choi Sang Hoon), is disheveled and stumbling around the place. A couple of bellboys comment on how the old man has been falling apart lately.
Later that evening Sung Won angrily confronts Jae Wan, accusing the younger man of stabbing the chairman in the back. Jae Won doesn't deny it and reveals he is the chairman's discarded son. Sung Won doesn't want to believe it.
Jae Wan goes down to oversee the opening party for the water park. Alone in his dark office, Sung Won is on his phone tearfully telling someone he's sorry. A mysterious figure quietly sneaks in.
Down in the water park the party is brought to a screeching halt when Sung Won drops in - through the roof. World's Ultimate Party Pooper. Jae Wan reports back to Fagin. Fagin scolds Jae Wan for disclosing his secret identity too soon. Now they'll have to deal with Sung Won's daughter, and Jae Wan's sister, Ah Mo Ne (played by Lee Da Hae).
The news reports Chairman Ah's death as a suicide. Spooked customers are cancelling their hotel reservations left and right. Jae Wan hears a news report about heavy snow cancelling flights and stranding numerous Chinese tourists at the airport. Potential customers! Jae Wan has them bused in and charged three times the going rate for a room.
Ah Mo Ne has to sneak into the country on a cargo ship. She's disguised in a burka but is still chased by men in black as they race through a market and make a mess. The comedy continues back at the hotel as we follow a dominatrix with a General Patton complex. She's Baek Mi Nyeo (played by Kim Hae Sook) and is training manager at Ciel.
Mo Ne finally arrives at the hotel and a general alert is sent out to warn the staff. She warmly greets Fagin like a second father. She continues to put on an act that she doesn't want to be involved in the messy business of running the hotel, she just wants the money it makes. Oh, and she doesn't really give a flip her father offed himself. But we know it's an act. Alone in her room, Mo Ne starts to investigate her father's so-called suicide.
The next morning Jae Wan has to deal with a crisis. Someone has hacked into the P.A. system and is playing an old speech by the late Ah Sung Won. In the dead man's office, the cleaning maids are freaked out by a hot cup of tea and paperwork on his desk. Jae Wan suspects Mo Ne of being behind all this but has no real hard proof.
Yet.
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