The beginning of the story is set in the 1930s and continues through 1990 in coal mining country near the West Virginia and Kentucky border. The book contains a hand-drawn map that shows towns, rivers and creeks, mountains, and mining camps that are referenced in the story. Most of the map focuses on Justice County, West Virginia, and the adjacent West Virginia county of McDowell and Paine County, Kentucky. McDowell County is an actual county on West Virginia's southwest border, but both Justice County and Paine County are fictional. The fictional Justice County takes the place of Mingo County, the site of the Mingo County coal war and the Matewan Massacre.