A New Man, A Dark Night, and Marie Summary

In A New Man, the protagonist Woodrow L. Cunningham is fifty-two years old. He returns from work one day and his daughter Elaine, a young teenager, openly disregards his authority and mocks him in front of her friends. A verbal argument ensues and the next day Rita, his wife, reports that Elaine is missing. They file a police report and canvass the neighborhood, then enlist friends and associates to canvass. The search proceeds for three months without success and the police assume Elaine is a runaway. Woodrow continues searching for a year and a half and then Rita, despairing, determines that they must move away. Throughout the entire period, Woodrow's father sends him letters full of tedious details of his days. Seven years after Elaine vanished, Woodrow's father dies...