The novel is narrated in the first person and follows the life of Dítě (a name meaning "child" in Czech), an aspiring hotelier. He is rather short, which causes him to have an inferiority complex; he goes to great lengths to disguise this perceived flaw. At the beginning of the novel, Dítě is starting out as a busboy at the Golden Prague Hotel, which, despite its name, is located in the countryside. It is here that Dítě begins his fascination with both women and money, trends that will continue and develop throughout much of the novel. He begins spending his paychecks at the local brothel and enjoys decorating prostitutes' laps with flower petals. His disapproving boss eventually finds out about his habit and puts a stop to it.
The next hotel he works at is a grand estate, but it is almost always empty. In one satirical scene, however, the hotel receives a visit from the President of the country (presumed to be Tomáš Masaryk) and his French lover.
The next hotel Dítě works at is in Prague itself. Here, Dítě works as a waiter, honing his skills of perception under the watchful tutelage of the headwaiter. When the Emperor of Ethiopia comes to Czechoslovakia for a state visit, he dines at the hotel, and Dítě is awarded a special medal for his diligent service, an honor which he wears proudly many times throughout the novel. After the dinner, however, Dítě is accused of having stolen a golden spoon that went missing. Ashamed, he attempts to hang himself, but is saved at the last minute when the spoon is found.
Dítě's time at the hotel comes to an end after the beginning of the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. Dítě's girlfriend, Lise, is an ethnic German as well as an ardent Nazi supporter, and while he never sympathizes with her political beliefs, Dítě comes to resent the bad treatment that she receives at the hands of Czechs, including at the restaurant he works. After an altercation with his coworkers over this issue, he is fired.
Dítě marries Lise, and together they move to a Nazi mountain retreat for pregnant "Aryan" women. Though he attempts to pass as Aryan himself, the other Germans treat him with condescension and disdain; he must get a dispensation from the doctor in order to be able to impregnate his wife, submitting to a humiliating physical exam in the process. When they eventually do have a child, their son is born retarded, and spends the day hammering nails into the floor.
After expressing doubts about the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Dítě is fired; he works as a waiter in a café in Prague while Lise works at the front lines. Near the end of the war, Lise is killed in the bombing of Cheb. In the rubble, Dítě finds a briefcase full of stamps stolen from a Jewish ghetto. He sells the stamps and uses the proceeds to build his own hotel in an abandoned quarry. Among his guests is John Steinbeck. The fame and wealth he amasses fulfill the dreams of his youth, and yet his status as a Nazi collaborator leaves him alienated from Prague's other hoteliers. After the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia, the hotel is nationalized, and Dítě is thrown into "millionaire's prison," in which the inmates live in high style and have access to all the luxuries they had on the outside.
After the prison is closed down, Dítě works a brief stint at a lumber mill before securing himself a job as a road repairer in the isolated mountains. He lives largely isolated from the world, save for the company of a few animals. Here, Dítě trades his youthful pursuit of temporal pleasures for quiet contemplation and spiritual growth. He comes to accept himself, overcoming the insecurity he felt throughout his life. The book ends with Dítě describing how he started to write the novel in the first place.
