The book is set in California in the mid-1960s on Orchard Avenue in a large university town. The area around Orchard Avenue is residential, consisting of apartment houses, modest homes, and small shops. The people of the area represent a wide variety of ethnic groups, and many of them work or study at the university.

April Hall has come to live with Caroline, her father's mother. Her father died in the Korean War when she was very young, and her mother, a singer and would-be actress, is currently on tour.

Caroline lives in the Casa Rosada, a Spanish-style apartment house built in the 1920s, where the apartments are large but relatively inexpensive.

Caroline works in the library at the university and has moved to the Casa Rosada so she will have room for April.

Among several small shops near the Casa Rosada, the A-Z shop sells antiques...