The novel is set in Massachusetts during the year 2000. References to Massachusetts place names, like the Emily Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, reflect the locale.

References to products like Coke and Pepsi, and to computers and the Internet, enhance the novel's atmosphere of contemporary realism.

Although the novel begins with Marina's and Jed's recollections of earlier times with their respective families, it primarily covers a three-week period that ends July 27, the day Reverend Beelson predicted Armageddon will begin. The main action takes place in the Believer retreat on Mount Weeupcut, in a wooded area normally reserved for recreational camping by the day or week.

The area is reached by a narrow blacktop that turns into a dirt road spiraling up the mountainside. Marina describes the place as "pretty wild, pretty cold," inhospitable even in the summer. Its remoteness conforms to Reverend Beelson's characteristic sense of isolation from a sinful...