Cassie's haunting takes place in a small town near London. Here, Mrs. Palmer has set up her crystal ball in a nondescript, dreary, cramped house on Shakespeare Street; and, here, for two long summers, the three youngest Palmer children play contentedly and comfortably in the corner of a nearby cemetery that Cassie's sister has christened the "Garden of Death." The children fantasize about the people buried beneath the heavy stone slabs and invent stories about them. Thus, years later, when Cassie accepts the dare to call up a spirit, it is natural for her to select from the familiar names at the old cemetery, since she is more comfortable with those departed souls than with any spirits at large.