The first story, "Fool's Paradise," begins "Somewhere, sometime, there lived a rich man whose name was Kadish." In this way Singer indicates that his stories are not confined to any particular time or place. On the other hand, as the name "Kadish" suggests, the people in these stories belong to the centuries-old Jewish folk culture that flourished in central Europe until the utter devastation caused by the Nazis in World War II.

References to the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, as well as descriptions of village life and other indications, all point to the world in which Singer grew up, as recounted in autobiographical stories in A Day of Pleasure and In My Father's Court (1966). But the stories are also timeless. The dress, habits, and beliefs may be unfamiliar, but in essentials the characters could easily change places with the reader's friends and neighbors.