In Elizabeth Jolley?s darkly comic Lovesong Dalton Foster has been ?returned? to his former community. We know there are various officials involved in this ?return?: some sort of rehabilitation centre, a prison, and ?Grayhead? a prison officer. We also know that there?s been ?repeated sessions of cure, rehabilitation it was called,? and that a ?sentence and a cure in various institutions? have taken up half of Dalton?s life so far. So now, Dalton is back living in his old neighbourhood, just around the corner from his former home. There?s been some sort of arrangement, and he?s living in a drab boarding house, Mrs Porter?s Establishment ?a Home away from Home for Homeless Gentlemen,? along with a motley assortment of lodgers: a completely potty piano teacher named Miss Mallow, Miss Emily Vales (who is always on the lookout for ?Mr Right?), several painted young men who work as dancers in ?the entertainment line,? and two young men who live together?one a waiter with AIDS and TB and the other, a doorman who is ?getting a bust.?