The setting of the story is set in two cities in Montana. One being Bozeman and the other Warm Springs. Petey was born in Bozeman and later returned there when he was much older. The asylum or the institution was in Warm Springs. Most of the book took place in the asylum. It was the Montana State Hospital and it was quite large. They had different wards for the children, women, and men. In Bozeman, Petey lived in the community's retirement home. As for when the story took place, Petey was born in the spring of 1922 and the story ended in 1990 or 1991. It being this period of time really affected the plot because it was in the early 20th century when they thought of people as feebleminded, and thought they were useless. "'As an idiot, any rehabilitative efforts would be futile (p.5).'" See, they immediately gave up on him and even his mother gave him away, because that is what doctors thought at the time.