New York City, 1946

New York City is the setting for most of Grace’s story within the novel as she seeks out the fates of the agents whose photographs she found in Eleanor’s suitcase. Ensconced in the post-war economic growth, New York represents a metropolitan existence separate from both the horrors of war as experienced in Europe as well as the genteel, isolated existence of suburban family life which Grace is glad to escape. New York also represents a confluence of different walks of life, reflected in the various story elements which eventually coalesce in different forms within the city. Eleanor, for example, eventually travels there to find Marie, who has made a home in Brooklyn for her daughter Tess and herself after her experiences in World War II. Although untouched by the violence of the war, New York maintains a sense of danger as well, as it...