New York City

This is the novel's primary setting. Its situation as one of the world's centers of finance is an ideal set of circumstances for the novel's thematic considerations of the ethics of business and of the values and qualities of risks. At the same time, its situation on America's eastern coast, and above large bodies of water, is a similarly ideal set of circumstance for the novel's thematic considerations of the power of nature.

Camp Ticonderoga

This wilderness area in the northern part of New York State is an actual setting for only a small (but important) part of the book's action, but its presence and what it represents play important roles in defining the character and intentions of protagonist Mitchell. More specifically, its establishment as a kind of back-to-nature commune provides a set of ideals about how he thinks, or starts to think, he should live...