Shalerville, Kentucky

Shalerville, Kentucky is where most of Isabelle's story takes place. She grew up in Shalerville with her two brothers, her mother, and her father, the main physician in town. Being considered the South, blacks - called Negroes through most of the novel - were housekeepers for prominent white families in Shalerville, but were not allowed outside in town after dark.

Descriptions of the town give it an old Southern feel: plantation homes on the outskirts, small, main street/small town-like in the center. Isabelle favors the library in town, going there each week as a child.

Car ride from Arlington, Texas, to Cincinnati, Ohio

The car ride from Arlington to Cincinnati is where most of Dorrie's story is told. Though Isabelle tells her story to Dorrie from the car, too, Dorrie tells her story to the reader more by thinking about it through her emotions rather than...