The novel takes place in New York City, primarily in Harlem in 1935. The flashbacks provide extended sequences in the American South, primarily in an unnamed town in the Deep South where Gabriel and Florence were born, and in Maryland where Elizabeth was raised. The flashbacks also recall earlier periods in Harlem and to a lesser extent other locations in New York.
In the novel, New York City at once represents freedom and opportunity - especially for Florence and Elizabeth who escape confining family lives, and for John who contemplates the opportunities of the world outside Harlem as he walks through Midtown Manhattan - but also the vulgarity and perdition, particularly for Gabriel and through Gabriel, for John. This duality is used to enhance the other conflicts in the novel, particularly between holiness and worldliness and between John and Gabriel.[12] For Elizabeth especially, but also for Florence and Gabriel, the promise of the city, the promise that drove the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to Northern cities including New York, turned out to be false. Elizabeth reflects that unlike the South, which promises nothing, the North promises but does not give and what is given can be taken away in an instant. Although the Great Migration led to the Harlem Renaissance and a flourishing of art and culture, the novel's depiction of Harlem is focused on the poverty, violence, drunkenness, and sexual depravity which were also a result.
