New York City, September 11, 2001

New York City on the day of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center is the setting of the novel's prologue. On that day, the city is quiet and strange, and people are much gentler with each other than usual, which the narrator finds unsettling. Footage of the attacks is also on televisions all over the city, and all of its residents seem glued to the news.

Howland, Massachusetts, early 2000s

The rural western Massachusetts town of Howland, which sits in the Berkshire Mountains, is the general setting for the novel's main action. It is a town of fewer than a thousand residents, and its economy depends largely on revenue from wealthy urban vacationers. The town seems to be a shell of its former self, and there is a divide yet a mutual dependency between the out-of-town tourists and the locals who reside there...