My Brother Sam Is Dead opens in April 1775 with the first battle of the American Revolution, the Minutemen's defeat of the British in Lexington, Massachusetts. The story ends a year and a half later, when Sam is executed by his British captors. The reader learns in the last chapter that Tim is telling the story in 1826, when he is sixty-four years old, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Most of the novel's action occurs in Redding Ridge, a once peaceful Tory town in southwestern Connecticut. The town becomes embroiled in bitter turmoil, and the war's effects on the Meeker family make for a gripping story. Christopher Collier has lived in southern Connecticut almost all his life, and his knowledge of the region's history adds depth to the characters, setting, and events of the story.