The setting of Ray Bradbury's short story "The Lake" is the beach in Lake Bluff, Illinois during late September. At the beginning of the story, Harold is only twelve years old and visits the beach while the other children are in school. As Harold is on the beach, he notices how the wind is colder and mentions that many of the restaurants and shops by the beach have closed for the fall. After visiting the location on the beach where his friend Tally used to build sand castles with him, Harold and his mother move to Sacramento, California.

Ten years go by, and Harold returns to the beach at Lake Bluff with his girlfriend, Margaret. The couple returns to Lake Bluff around late August or early September. Harold ends up talking to a lifeguard, who finds the remains of Tally's body, which have been undiscovered for ten years. Harold then ends up sharing an intimate moment at the same location where he used to build sand castles with Tally before he walks back to Margaret.

The Lake by Ray Bradbury is one of a collection of short stories, originally appearing in Dark Carnival. The man returns to a lake where a childhood sweetheart had drowned many years before.

The setting of The Lake includes Lake Bluff and the lake after which the town is named. The man has returned to his hometown with his new wife. It is autumn, probably early September because he indicates that "It was not quite as late in the year as that day so many years before." "Tally" had drowned  when "things are getting sad for no reason." The setting then is not static as there has been a passage of time from boy to married man.

The man notices that stalls are closing up for the onset of winter as "People were thinning out,...and the wind, as always, waited there to sing for us." There is the beach and the man craves to be alone, although his wife would not understand so he tells her nothing. The historical aspect of the setting takes the man back to when he was twelve years old and he remembers Tally on the day "the lake would not let her return."