The J. T. Kreuger Senior High School in Michigan City, Indiana, and San Bavispe, California, as well as various points in between serve as a backdrop for the frantic events in This Stranger, My Father. The heroine's journey with her father takes them through seven different states. The setting is marked by highways, stolen cars, diners, gasoline stations, motels, and an occasional shopping center. The setting is conveyed mainly through dialogue between the characters.

The story takes place during a period of less than three weeks, yet the characters are subjected to more experiences of a disturbing nature than most people have over an entire lifetime.

The setting conveys a picture of cheap motel rooms with their ubiquitous television sets, double beds, and small windows. Meals often consist of cold doughnuts and orange juice, sodas, or milk eaten in the motel rooms.