The story takes place in McKinley, Minnesota, in the summer and winter of 1958. McKinley, population 900 to 1200 (the Chamber of Commerce uses the higher figure to attract tourists), is a typical small, modestly prosperous Midwestern town of farmers and lumbermen. It is a town where everyone knows everybody else and everybody else's reputation. Most of the action occurs at the town's twin outdoor ice rinks. One is for skating and one is for hockey. Nearby is the warming house where skaters lace up or retreat to escape the cold. The rinks are the town's social center. Here the community gathers in the late afternoon for exercise, entertainment, gossip, and flirtation. Here adults, adolescents, and children mix freely, whether in the freefor-all hockey games with a dozen or so players on a side or on the skating rink where skaters move in time to waltzes and marches from a handful...