Sherrena Tarver is one of the two landlords profiled in the book. Young, black, and a former elementary schoolteacher, she has through sheer force of will and determination accumulated a real estate empire worth two million dollars. These properties are located primarily in the black North Side of Milwaukee, and the tenants are usually poverty stricken.

Tarver operates between two extreme mindsets, often at the same time: she’s helping to improve the lives of her tenants, and these tenants appreciate nothing she does for them. The opposite is true. Despite her claims of good deeds and generosity, she is utterly amoral and only concerned with extracting as much money from her renters as possible. She likes renting to the poor, desperate, and disabled, as that gives her even more power over her tenants.

Tobin Charney is the other landlord in the book. Old, white, and the son of a landlord, Charney, unlike Tarver, has no pretensions about who his renters are and what his relationship with them consists of. To Charney, they are nothing more than a way to make money. When the book opens, he is battling to renew the operating license for his trailer park due to the poor maintenance, derelict tenants, and high crime rates.