Twenty-nine year old Caucasian Elgar Enders still lives at the estate of his parents, William and Joyce Enders, and off their vast wealth with their blessing, although his ultra-conservative father hopes that some day Elgar will have some drive and make a name for himself, much as he believes his eldest son, William Jr., has done. Elgar decides finally to move out, and buys a tenement house in Park Slope, Brooklyn, a rough neighborhood seemingly on the verge of gentrification. He plans to tear it down and build a new house for himself. Although they have no idea of his plans, the tenants of the building, exclusively black, do not welcome their young, lily-white new landlord with open arms. They believe he is just another slum white landlord who wants their money, although most of them are indeed several months behind in their rent. Despite their antagonistic beginning, Elgar, after spending time with his tenants and learning their stories, decides to be a proper landlord and fix up the building for them and for him to live in. Elgar's transition into liberal minded lover of his black brothers and sisters is not without its problems as he deals with some tenants who are indeed deadbeats, his parents who just don't understand and agree with this phase of his life, and race relations where the color of one's skin does affect how they are treated in life and in turn how they interact with others. The latter is epitomized by his relationships with Lanie, a biracial woman who he initially believed was white, and with husband and wife tenants Copee and Fanny to who he gets a little too close 译文(2): 29岁的高加索人埃尔加 · 恩德斯(Elgar Enders)仍然住在父母威廉(William)和乔伊斯 · 恩德斯(Joyce Enders)的庄园里，在他们的祝福下，依靠自己的巨额财富生活，尽管他极端保守的父亲希望有一天埃尔加会有一些动力，让自己出名【ZiYuanTun.Com】，就像他相信他的大儿子小威廉(William Jr.)所做的那{资源屯-ziyuantun.com}。埃尔加最终决定搬出去，在布鲁克林的公园坡买了一栋出租房，这是一个看起来处于中产阶级化边缘的粗糙社区。他计划把它拆掉，为自己建一座新房子。虽然他们对他的计划一无所知，但是这栋楼里的房客，全部都是黑人，并不张开双臂欢迎他们年轻的、纯洁的新房东。他们认为他只是另一个贫民窟的白人房东，想要他们的钱，尽管他们中的大多数人确实拖欠了几个月的房租。尽管他们一开始是敌对关系，但埃尔加在与租户相处了一段时间并了解了他们的故事之后，决定成为一个合格的地主，为他们修缮房屋，并让他住进去。埃尔加转变为他的黑人兄弟姐妹的自由主义爱人并不是没有问题的，因为他面对的是一些确实赖账的房客，他的父母只是不理解和同意他生命中的这个阶段，以及种族关系，其中一个人的肤色确实影响他们在生活中如何被对待，进而影响他们如何与他人互动。后者的缩影是他与蕾妮的关系，一个混血女人，他最初认为是白人，与丈夫和妻子租户科皮和范妮，他得到了一点太接近
