The action takes place on a rural homestead in Kansas. It is comprised of an old, two-story house, a saddle shop next to a highway, a "big old barn that looked like a giant hen with all the little sheds as its chicks," and a corral.

The house connects Denny to the past —to her grandparents, her father, and her mother, who just barges in one day after having been gone for many years.

The shop represents hope for a better future. By the book's end, the shop is undergoing changes that may make it more appealing to customers and more profitable. The barn and corral and the horses in them represent Denny's growing self-discipline. The area in which Denny lives is hot, dry, and lonely.