Journeys through Spacetime

A massive building is burning burning...
A woman with dark hair and pale skin is watching the scene while screaming over telephone. The building is a lunatic asylum... The recipient of the screaming is a young female receptionist. She explains to the angry woman that people must evacuate and inevitably change beds.
Mary gives up and walks with me to a red brick building with a cylinder and cone connected. I follow her in the building, curious. She is introduced to a plump woman who talks to her in a foreign language. I ask timidly, "Why is the positioning of people in the asylum important?"
She sighs, you see, information can be stored in binary. In this case it was vacant or occupied. Information can be stored via this, and therefore save computer space and it can be used as a backup. My life's work has been perfecting this system, storing info by colour of beds, difficulty of patient, gender... All gone."