New York City

In the beginning of the novel, Frances and Malcolm live in New York City in a penthouse apartment. Despite Frances' brush with infamy after Franklin's death, it is apparent from the very first scene that she is a well-regarded and glamorous figure, as she is described leaving a party while its host fawns over her desperately. Shortly thereafter, however, Frances learns she and Malcolm must vacate their apartment, which is described as "multilevel" and looking like "a museum after hours" (8) - meaning it was very expensive. Malcolm and Frances' eviction from their apartment is a symbol of their exile from New York and the moneyed society of which they are no longer a part. Later, when the narrative shifts to Franklin/Small Frank's perspective, he longs for his former life in New York City, which, the narrator explains, felt like an extension of Franklin himself, "a...