"The story is told from the point of view of Howard Wakefield, through narration that reveals his evolving emotional state. A successful attorney in New York City, he is unhappy in his marriage of 15 years to Diana, a beautiful art curator and former dancer. One night, Howard returns home late from his commute by train and is distracted by a raccoon he sees entering his garage, which is detached from the house. He chases the raccoon into the garage's attic, where he realizes he has a perfect view into his home, where his wife and two daughters, Taylor and Giselle, are eating dinner. He ignores calls from his wife and is amused at her clear annoyance, but is insulted when she angrily throws his plate of dinner away instead of saving it for him. To avoid a fight, he decides to wait a bit to go into the house, but he ends up falling asleep.
The next morning, Howard realizes Diana will never believe his story of spending the night in the garage and will insist he was having an affair, so he plans to wait for her to leave for work before going in. Instead, he is shocked when, after finding his car still in the garage, she calls the police to report him missing. Diana then leaves for work and Howard finally goes inside and showers, planning to just deal with the fallout of his absence, before he starts resenting the idea that his wife would still go to work after his disappearance. It then dawns on him that his disappearance is probably a relief to her, and that she probably thinks that she married the wrong man. He cleans up any evidence that he was inside the house, grabs some food from the pantry and returns to the garage."
