America

The United States of America, with its violent history of race-defined conflict, is the broad strokes setting for the events of the story.

1912

Most of the action in the novel is set in the early years of the 20th Century - specifically, in the year 1912. This period in American history, only a few decades after the Civil War (which was fought over, among other things, the existence of slavery), saw the very earliest beginnings of a societal and/or cultural shift towards acknowledgement of the value of so-called minorities, including both "colored" and female citizens.

Phippsburg, Maine

This small coastal community, in one of the most north-easterly of the American states, is the main setting for much of the story. The community is portrayed as conservative, economically struggling, traditionally Christian, and in some ways morally corrupt. It is against these aspects of the town's identity against which Turner...