Each one of the stories in The Night in Question is meant to stand as an individual work of fiction, and there are no specific, identifiable marks of linkage to connect them. Nonetheless, Wolff returns again and again to two primary themes. The protagonist of many of the stories is a young man in his mid-to-late teens, whose life is directed towards the discovery or recovery of points of connection in a fractured family. And as a means of maintaining a measure of personal balance in a chaotic world, the protagonist is instinctively drawn toward the powers of the creative imagination to find or make some sense of the confusion and uncertainty of his life. In story after story, an individual is intrigued by the mysteries of an often harsh but also fascinating universe.

The young journalist in "Mortals" is challenged by an adversary...