This story is set at the mother's house, on the occasion of a daughter's(Dee) visit.Dee was the apparent favorite-beautiful, wordly. Dee is also incredibly selfish, assuming, and condescending. She sifts through the house searching for the few possessions of beauty that her mother owns.Dee does not care for the nostalgic, emotional attachment to the quilts, but for the collectiblew status. In this way, it is ironic that Dee is seen as the attractive sister of the two girls, while her personality is full of ugliness.

The setting of the story is in the mother's house. Her mother states that the new house (the first house was destroyed in a fire), is a three-room shack with no "real" windows and a tin roof. The house helps better reflect the contrast between Dee's materialism and Maggie and her mother's pride in their home and their contentedness with life. I would say it could be both symbolic and ironic.