- Now we're back in what you might call the present, although it's really the present twice removed—it's still 1968.
- Mustafa and the Author sit with each other over dinner.
- The Author asks why Mustafa traded his fortune for an old, beat up, unprofitable hotel. Was it to maintain a connection with Gustave?
- Mustafa says no; Gustave and he shared a world. He wanted to keep the hotel for Agatha.
- He straightens Boy with Apple displayed behind the empty concierge desk.
- The Author tells us about his trips and we see him writing, presumably writing the story of The Grand Budapest.
- Then we see his older self, sitting with his son at home.
- Then we see the girl from the beginning, reading The Grand Budapest Hotel on a bench beside the bust of the late Author.
- The movie ends.