Memories and reflection take the reader across many locations from Arthur’s Delano Island, which he regularly describes to people at parties, to Los Angeles and New York although most of the action occurs around the Great Lakes area between Canada and the United States. Toronto, Canada, is the opening location. The novel begins inside a theatre where fake snow imitates real snow falling outside and where Arthur Leander suffers a fatal heart attack. It is also where Jeevan Chaudhary, initially seated in the audience, is seen walking the streets ahead of the pandemic warning that will propel him to secure supplies and hole up in his brother’s Toronto apartment.

In the Great Lakes Region is the town of St Deborah by the Water. St Deborah, as the ‘saint of defeat and depression’ who prophesied that the Israelites would not achieve victory over the Canaanites, is an apt name for the town in which the nomadic troupe first face the Prophet and from which they are subsequently quick to flee. The morale of the performers as they enter the town is low and even lower when they leave without their companions who they had expected to find waiting for them.

After fleeing St Deborah by the Water the group head to the Severn City Airport. The airport houses the Museum of Civilisation and is a refuge for travellers escaping the pandemic. Elizabeth and Tyler are stranded with Clark Thompson as their plane arrives in the devastated airport. Another plane arrives but is taxied to the far side of the runway. This quarantined plane has an infected person onboard and serves as a constant reminder of the sacrifice the passengers made when they did not open the doors upon arrival, choosing instead to sit quietly like a coffin in plain sight.