Bolton is a typical Midwestern small town, population 2000. It is the county seat; its courthouse square and park are the literal center and the spiritual heart of the town. Because the monument will be placed here, what it is matters and what it symbolizes is significant to everyone. Around the square is the small business district and a few residences. Around the town are the large farms which underlie the economy.

In her thirteenth summer, Rocky is working at the grain elevator owned by her adoptive father, Fred. It is hot, dusty, dawn-to-dusk work relieved by the parade of familiar personalities as local farmers buy seed and sell grain.

Rocky thinks Bolton is the flattest landscape in the flattest part of Kansas.

Only gossip relieves the tedium and routine.