West Mills, NC, 1976

The novel takes place almost entirely in the small town of West Mills, NC, in the year 1976. The town is notable to the novel's plot and themes because it is heavily segregated and also home to a number of regressive attitudes about homosexuality. These tensions keep the community divided and ultimately inform the complex web of connections and relationships that the townspeople form with one another leading up to and in the wake of the murder of the Harmons. Furthermore, the broader location of the town in the American south allows Winslow to levy a critique of the social mores that keep the society in West Mills racially segregated, and its relatively small size speaks to the insularity and intimacy of the community, qualities that breed deep trust and friendship as much as it breeds suspicion.

New York City

New York City functions as a symbol...