Norton uses a number of literary techniques to create the mood and setting in the book. Her use of language and vocabulary of the period, some flashback, and more than one point of view allows the reader to understand the two classes of people from the medieval period. Her symbolism is fairly obvious, and accessible to almost any reader.

The names of the characters give a feeling of another time and place since most of them are unfamiliar. Willadene awakens to the tolling of the town bell and her bed, a straw pallet covered with rags, establishes her place in society. Her name evokes a wooded valley with perhaps a stream running through it. The town cannot be large since it is walled and built around the castle. Reference to the plague sets the time.

Willadene dresses in clothing that has been "cobbled down" in an...