Hal's life is less than happy. His last lover having left him owing a lot of debts, Hal works at a restaurant for a tyrant of a woman whose laughable taste renders her colorful but formidable. He needs the job to get through graduate school, and he learns how to deal with her nearly intolerable bullying. His solace is that he rents the house on Shadow Lane which at first provides him a merely a refuge where he can wallow in his despair, but with the arrival of Tom and Mike to whom he rents the spare room, the house becomes a real home where he finds joy and love. He meets and falls in love with Simon, and they begin life together. His eccentric friends drop by from time to time, generally for breakfast, the venue where the residents of the house discuss everything from who The Lurker might be, an unknown person who sits in a car at night and watches the house, to party planning (how to avoid food by the worst cook in town who thinks he's one of the best.) There is Norman whose fashion statement to the world includes wearing tons of Navajo turquoise jewelry, a would-be thief and his surprising boyfriend, and various other people-all come and go through the welcoming doors of the house on Shadow Lane.