Netflix series Midnight at the Pera Palace is set in two markedly different Istanbuls: the democratic Middle Eastern hub that it is today, and the capital of the Ottoman Empire that it was in 1919. A baby is lying alone on a bed as the storm booms outside. The clock strikes midnight, the room shakes violently. The child is disappeared. Elsewhere: An Istanbul apartment. A bunch of Agatha Christie novels line a shelf. Esra (Hazal Kaya) is rushing to get her crap together. She’s late for work. Esra is a journalist who wants to report important stories but is often stuck with piffle. Anyway, the Pera Palace hotel, an Istanbul institution, is celebrating its 130th anniversary, and Esra’s editor tells her to write 130 reasons to spend the night there. Esra is thrilled and gets an in-depth tour of the hotel via Ahmet (Tansu Biler), a historian who shows her all things of historical importance, including the antique typewriter on the desk in room 411. The storm has gotten, so Ahmet offers Esra a free room for the night and a signature Pera Palace cocktail at the bar. There’s something to do with a secret key, and Esra finds herself sneaking into a room mere moments before midnight as the storm rages. The room shakes, and Esra walks out into the hall smack into 1919. Further, she starts jumping her way into the middle of precarious negotiations between international dignitaries, possibly derailing the Turkish War for Independence. Meanwhile, Ahmet senses a disturbance in the force, and time hops back to 1919 to see if he can fix all that Esra has just disrupted.