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The story is set in a large, cosmopolitan town, presumably in the American Midwest, as Bernice is visiting from the small Wisconsin city of Eau Claire. The setting primarily splits focus between Marjorie’s home, where most of the conversations between Bernice and Marjorie take place, and the various parties they attend, keeping up with the social scene of which Marjorie is a major part. These parties occur in moneyed places like large country clubs adjacent to golf courses. The male characters are all either at college, on the track to attend college, or college graduates. Even if they attend “casually” as Warren does, it is likely that their families are well-to-do, and attending college is one of the mechanisms by which they maintain connections with other wealthy families and show off their ability to send their sons to college. It is implied that Bernice is more middle- to lower-class than Marjorie, making her that much more dependent on Marjorie to move through the social circles to which she would seemingly not have access to back home.

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