The story takes place in the recent past in an unspecified small southern town where everyone appears to know everyone else. Scott Dabney and his father live in a big house with their cook, Augusta. Events take place at the local high school, the swimming hole at the quarry, the fairgrounds, at camp, the swimming pool, Beeman's hardware store, elsewhere around the town, and along the country roads Scott roams with his friend Kelly in the old junk-heap of a car nicknamed the Iron Lung. But one of the most important places in the novel exists mainly in Scott's memory and imagination: DeLane County, "just four hours directly west of here, just over the state line a little." DeLane County is the location of the many stories Scott's mother used to tell him about their family history: crazy, funny, romantic stores that mirrored her personality. It is the...