The characters all live in a small town called Lark Creek and, except for when Jess goes to Washington, D.C., with Miss Edmunds, all the action takes place there. Lark Creek is a small, almost backward town in Virginia where people are slow to accept change and frown on difference (see "Character Analysis: Miss Edmunds" for more on this). They don't like hippies or girls who wear pants. People live on farms, work hard, and struggle. They don't have many resources and people, even children, are supposed to make do with the little they've
