Wealthy River View and less affluent Hastings Bay, towns on opposite sides of a river in present day Massachusetts, are both possible sites for a nuclear waste disposal plant.

The all-pervasive feud between River View and Hastings Bay, is described by Jon when Kate first moves back to River View: "They're supposed to hate us and we're supposed to hate them. . .

It's . . . well, dumb." Less evident when students went to elementary school in their respective towns, the animosity is clear when students from both towns attend the same regional high school.

Whenever anything bad happens in one town, students from the other town are blamed. River View students exhibit a snobbery that clearly puts Hastings Bay students beneath them. The rivalry has existed for as long as people can remember. Jon explains that "it's like some kind of holy war, going so far back people just concentrate on...