Joseph Marti is an unremarkable bookbinder who quits his job when a supervisor shoves a badly-glued book in his face. Yet it seems that it doesn't really matter whether he comes to work or not. Time is also irrelevant and shifts imperceptibly from the present to the past. Joseph is transported to an early 20th century villa in the suburbs where he is employed as an assistant to the inventor, engineer Tobler. There he gradually becomes a factotum: he is placed in charge of the bookkeeping and the correspondence, and gains the confidence of the lady of the house. He obediently does everything he is told. It seems increasingly unlikely that Tobler will ever achieve his ambitious business plans. ​The family's financial situation becomes desperate. In the face of growing tension in the Toblers' marriage and the abuse to which he is exposed, Joseph decides to leave.