The setting in Beyond the Mango Tree is a critical element of the story. Because Sarina's family is in a foreign land, Sarina's mother severely restricts Sarina's movement, rarely allowing her to go off the grounds of their home.

Liberia represents everything foreign and exotic to Sarina; Sarina's first-person narrative sensitively captures the sights and smells of the various places she visits there. When she first goes to the big market, called Joe Bar, she describes it in such a way that the reader is swirling around with Sarina, catching glimpses of tables and wares but never stopping.

Joe Bar looks nothing like I imagined. It is huge and teeming with activity, a great circular construction with a corrugated tin roof flimsily held up by thick wooden poles. Inside it is filled with loud voices and unappealing smells.... Liberian women sit alongside their wares in a strange mix...