On
New Year's Eve 1999 at
Gstaad Palace, one of the most important end-of-year parties in history is being prepared. Director Hansueli Kopf and his staff do everything to satisfy the whims of their guests, all members of high society. Among them is Bongo, a former Italian porn star whose career has long stalled; Dr. Lima, a famous plastic surgeon whose questionable works are visible on the faces of some guests, together with his wife suffering from
Alzheimer's disease; the Marquise de la Valle, an elderly noblewoman who loves her dog more than humans; Arthur William Dallas III, a rich tycoon in his nineties who will celebrate his first wedding anniversary with the naive Magnolia, seventy years his junior; finally the shady Bill Crush, who boasts of wealth but seems bad at business. While preparations are underway, a group of Russian guests arrive at the hotel led by the ambiguous Anton, who asks Hansueli to keep some suitcases with mysterious contents in the hotel's vault, which has long been disused: the only key is given to Anton. Shortly afterwards, the Russians witnessed the resignation live on TV of
Boris Yeltsin and the handover of power to
Vladimir Putin. There are many chaotic misadventures that precede the big evening party, which Hansueli must remedy with his enviable aplomb. Meanwhile, Bill Crush tries to take advantage of the
Y2K bug to dramatically increase his now meagre wealth, using the seraphic banker Caspar Tell: in exchange for his help, Crush offers Tell a large bribe that will lead the modest and repressed employee to become rich and change his life. Crush's plan, however, is called into question by the sudden arrival of a Czech man who claims to be his secret son, along with his entire family: Crush denies that the man could be his son and refuses to meet them. As a result, Hansueli is forced to host them in various areas of the hotel, away from prying eyes. Meanwhile, the Marquise has a problem with her dog, in whose excrement she believes she sees confirmation of her fears about the end of the world; Doctor Lima's intervention (which will later also be requested by Bongo, who breaks his nose while skiing) reveals that the little dog, used to eating caviar, only has a banal
parasitosis, which the surgeon fears the woman is also affected by. The Marquise will console herself with the services of a handsome Polish plumber. Dallas and Magnolia celebrate their anniversary with eccentric celebrations that even include the presence of a real penguin: their relationship, in reality, is the subject of gossip due to the notable age difference between the two. When Dallas dies during a frantic sexual encounter, Magnolia asks for Hansueli's help: due to a legal technicality, the girl will only be able to inherit Dallas' huge fortune after midnight, at the end of an effective year of marriage. The director will therefore try to postdate the tycoon's death by a few hours, using rather bizarre methods. Shortly after the start of the party, the Russian ambassador arrives and reveals to Anton that with the new political situation in the country, the money hidden in the briefcases must disappear, and can therefore be divided among all the Russians guests. Meanwhile, Tell, invited to the party by Crush, has second thoughts that call their plan into question: when the banker inadvertently takes marijuana offered to him by the Russian girls following Anton, he lets go of his inhibitions and starts spending the money which he still doesn't have in very expensive champagne. Crush, having found a debt of over $12,000 in his account, sets off in a furious search for his accomplice, lost among the other guests, but suffers a heart attack: he is rescued by Hansueli and Crush's alleged son. At the end of the party, the Russian ambassador and Anton go to the vault to divide the money, but Anton inadvertently locks the other one inside together with the only key. When he goes to Hansueli to ask for help, the director, exhausted from dealing with other people's problems all day, orders him to take care of it himself. ==Cast==