California

Many of the collection's short stories are set in California. In "Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain," "Enough!," "Hungry Ricky Daddy," "Saba's Story," "Occupational Hazards," "The Tale of Dully's Reversion," and "The Haunting of Hajji Hotak," the main characters and narrators reside in this western state. Characters like Rangeena from "Enough!" and the protagonist of "Occupational Hazards" are at odds with their environment, and often dream of the life they left behind in Kabul. In others of the stories, the characters are more settled in their West Coast reality. Such characters, including Mirwais and Marwand, for example, have more trouble reconciling their contemporary American life with their ancestral history in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan

All of the characters in the short story originate from Afghanistan. Stories including "Return to Sender," "Bakhtawara and Miriam," "Waiting for Gulbuddin," "Saba's Story," "Occupational Hazards," "A Premonition; Recollected," "The Parable of the Goats...