New York City

Mia lives in New York City. While most of the story happens in West Virginia, New York is significant because Mia's experience of the field trip is so very different than Mia's home, where she can get bagels and cold noodles and she doesn't have to deal with bugs, dew, nature, and the sounds of the forest.

West Virginia

Mia goes on a school field trip to West Virginia to help build houses for an organization called Houses for the Hopeful. It is a seven-hour bus ride away from home. Mia has romantic notions about what it will be like to be under the stars in West Virginia with her boyfriend Michael, though she quickly discovers that the campsite and living in nature are not the romantic adventure she thought it would be. The town of Hominy Knob is small and the only thing exciting...