The book is set in an upper-middle class neighborhood in Connecticut. In Chapter 1, about five pages in, there is a passage that describes Janey's school and the attitude of her friends. The passage depicts a nice, pleasantly constructed school, and the students act like regular high school students who complain about the way the space in the school is alotted, but enjoy being together in it -

"Peter, Adair, Sarah-Charlotte, Jason, Katrina, and Janie went in a mob down the wide stairs, through the wide halls, and into the far-too-small cafeteria. The kids complained about the architecture of the school (all that space dedicated to passing periods and hardly any to lunch). but they loved being crammed in, fliching each other's potato chips, telling secrets they wanted everybody to overhear...sending the people on the outside of the crush to get you a second milk."

Janie and her friends live in a small town where everyone knows everyone, as opposed to in a large city. About two pages further in Chapter 1 there is a quote that reads,

"Reeve...had always lived in this town, always gone to this school. I want to live in a city, he'd said last night, and be anonymous."

The town in which Janie and her friends live is close to the beach. About five pages into Chapter 2, there is a passage that describes the nearby shoreline and the Scenic Overlook frequented by the teenagers -

"Reeve turned the Jeep into the Scenic Overlook...to the east stretched the ocean, and to the west, barely protected by thin spits of sand and mud, was the harbor where the wind jostled boats against the wharves. The boatyard was filled with marina employees taking boats out of the water for the winter storage."