A Kiss in the Dark

Twenty-one years as a concert pianist has made New York-based Eric Phillips successful and wealthy. His life, which is largely dictated by others, most specifically his business manager Peter Danilo, has also made him a nervous wreck, leading to him contemplating taking a break from touring. Eric's wants are against Peter's wants, Peter who tries to placate Eric while setting up a performance schedule for the upcoming season as busy as ever. Peter has tried to diversify Eric's money in different investments, one such being an apartment building in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan called the Cleopatra Arms. Horace Willoughby, the former owner of the apartment building who still manages it, only sold it to someone like Eric - an artist - on the assumption that he would be a hands-on landlord to treat the building with the respect and care that Willoughby believes it deserves. In selling the building, Willoughby failed to disclose that the building needs a little more than tender loving care to repair many of the deficiencies against city code. In touring through the building, Eric finds that despite their diversity, Willoughby and the tenants consider themselves one big family, that is except one, Mr. Botts, a belligerent man who works nights, and who objects to any little noise during the day while he tries to sleep. But of the tenants, Eric is most interested in Polly Haines, a print model to who Eric is attracted at first sight. Willoughby, with Polly in the picture, is eventually able to convince Eric to be that hands-on landlord. Eric and Polly eventually fall for each other. A happy ending for the couple has many obstacles, including each being able to live in the other's very foreign life. But the biggest obstacles are arguably Peter, who wants to protect his meal ticket, and Bruce Arnold, Polly's possessive insurance salesman boyfriend, who is also a former linebacker.