NOTE: This study guide refers to And the Dark Sacred Night, by Julia Glass, the Kindle Edition, Copyright 2014.

Kit Noonan is a mid-forties man who has lost his academic job and struggles to help his wife care for their two children. Part of Kit's angst is never knowing the identity of his father so when his wife suggests that he set out to find that information to get him unstuck in life, he does so and a whole new world opens up to him. Kit visits his mother's ex-husband, Jasper Noonan, who raised Kit as his own and Jasper provides the missing link to Kit's parentage. Kit's search leads him to Vermont where he meets his paternal grandparents, Senator Zeke and Lucinda Burns. Lucinda, especially is wild with joy to have Kit in her life and helps him learn about his father, a sophisticated man and New York Times music critic who died years ago from AIDS. Before long, another tragedy befalls the family when Lucinda dies on a family vacation and Kit is devastated by this loss. Ultimately, though, Kit comes to terms with the strengths and flaws of his biological father and embraces Jasper, the man who raised him and was the father he always longed for.