In January, Curt Mellam, widower, prices an imported sports car (MGX) as a high school graduation present for Karen, his only child, expecting her to drive it to Georgetown University in the coming fall. He never completes the purchase. Instead, by September he is dodging bullets as a moonlighter, is rapidly unlearning notions he, as a straight-arrow, to-the-line executive, has long held, and is worrying about how he will ever pay next semester's tuition for Karen.
Night Work tells how Curt adapts to street life and, at the same time, to his quickly maturing (especially sexually) daughter who brings her first serious boy friend home to meet Dad just as Curt has to start working nights. Curt, of course, wants to tar and feather the boy and run him out of town.
The story is told with self-effacing humor despite the violence (murder, corrupt inner city police, drug dealing) Curt encounters. In time, Curt and his daughter come to consider their ordeals blessings.
