Zuzana Novotná

The story focuses on a special unit of Czech intelligence, known as the Extraktoři (Extractors). The unit operates in secret and its main mission is to ensure the safe return of endangered Czechs from abroad. The story offers insight into the world of espionage and international covert operations and is inspired by true events.

Frank, a native New Yorker, inherits his ancestral estate, Castle Kostka, and returns to the Czech Republic with his daughter Maria and wife Vivien after over forty years abroad. They find the castle in gradual decay, inhabited only by the long-slumbering steward Josef, housekeeper Mrs. Tichá, and hypochondriac handyman Krása. As the staff slowly awakens from the post-revolutionary 1990s inertia, Frank’s family faces a difficult decision: sell the dilapidated property and return to America or undertake the challenge of restoring Castle Kostka.