THE LANDLORD

Elgar Enders, who lives off an allowance from his wealthy parents William and Joyce, buys an inner-city tenement in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which is undergoing gentrification, planning to evict the occupants and construct a luxury home for himself. However, once he ventures into the tenement, he grows fond of the low-income black residents. Elgar decides to remain the landlord and help fix the building. He rebels against his WASP upbringing and, to his parents' dismay, romances two black women.

The first is Lanie, a mixed-race dancer at a local black club. Lanie has light skin and features due to her having a mother of Irish descent and a father of African descent, and has experienced colorism. Their relationship is strained, as Elgar has an affair with one of his tenants, Fanny Johnson, and gets her pregnant. Her husband, Copee, a black activist with an identity crisis, is enraged when he finds out about the pregnancy, and tries to kill Elgar with an axe but stops. He is taken away in a straitjacket.

In recovery at the hospital, Fanny tells Elgar she can't raise the child herself with Copee returning home. Elgar balks at being a single father, so Fanny suggests they give the child up for adoption, but only to a white family to start a new life. The story ends with Elgar taking custody of the child, mending his relationship with Lanie, and moving in with her.

Elgar takes custody of Fanny Johnson's child, reconciles with Lanie, and moves in with her.

Elgar’s final decisions cap his journey from privileged outsider to someone who assumes responsibility for his actions and forms a new, unconventional family structure. The ending underscores the complexity of crossing lines of race and class in pursuit of connection and self-definition. It’s less about fixing the system, more about muddling through its messes—and accepting what comes with it.