Ithaca, California

This is the small town where the action of the narrative takes place, the idealized "home" for many of the characters, particularly Marcus and Tobey.

The Telegraph Office

The telegraph office where Homer, Grogan and Spangler work is the setting for many of the novel's key scenes. On one level, the office could be perceived as the place where good and bad news first stops in Ithaca on their way to the homes where such news will change the lives of the people who live there, an information way-station.

The Macaulay Home

This is the warm, inviting house where Homer, Ulysses, and the rest of the Macauley family lives. For most of the novel it represents the love and safety of family, but at the novel's conclusion, when the family welcomes the orphaned Tobey as one of their own, it becomes a representation of the unconditional...