 Dortmunder is tall with stooped shoulders and "lifeless thinning hair-colored hair" and has a disreputable "hangdog" face which rarely smiles.He shares an apartment with longtime girlfriend May Bellamy, a supermarket cashier, in Manhattan on East 19th Street.Unlike Parker, however, Dortmunder is a nonviolent character who devises schemes that start out fairly straight-forward but usually turn out outlandish and over-the-top.