Midnight Hour Encores is structured around the cross-country journey. Part of Sib's dilemma at the end of the novel involves which home, her father's or her mother's, is her home. The physical setting and description of each home is thus important in helping Sib decide where she best fits in and feels the most comfortable.

The two most vivid locations in the Washington home are the conservatorio and the workshop. The conservatorio is "where all the music is," the place where Sib and her father take turns playing their favorite music. The central role of music in the room is obvious: clustered here are a stereo, records, a piano, a viola da gamba, and a double bass. The room's chair sits right in the middle at the "optimum conjunction point for the sound" from the speakers. Here jazz and classical music coexist, and neither the father nor the...