“I am in the backwoods of southeastern Oklahoma, where after a rain, the morning shadows linger long and deep, and the mountains exhale mist so thick it seems to have weight. The countryside exudes the eerie, forgotten feel of a place where a woman and a seven-year-old boy could simply vanish and no one would ever know.”

This passage, which occurs as Valerie arrives to start her job at Horsethief Trail National Park, is the first description of the mountain setting where the novel takes place. This evocative description of the Winding Stair Mountains underscores the significance of the setting to the entire novel. When Valerie imagines that she and Charlie could vanish in the area, this thought foreshadows the major plot points in both timelines, for in both 1909 and 1990, several young people do indeed vanish in these mountains.

“Ron leans over me, his breath ruffling the loose hairs at the back of my neck. I fight the heebie-jeebies. The tragedy here feels fresh, even though it's not. I duck sideways then stand back to get a better look at him. The first thing you learn in interviewing witnesses—body language doesn’t lie. His evasiveness is evident despite the fact that his features are hard to make out in the haze beyond the flashlight beam.”

In the cave where three Choctaw girls were buried almost 100 years ago, Valerie feels a fresh sense of tragedy and worry. This sentiment echoes and reinforces the dual timelines of the novel, for the past unfolds alongside the present and exerts a strong influence on the more recent story. In this scene, Roy’s evasiveness and Valerie’s role as a law enforcement officer also speak to the novel’s use of conventions from the mystery genre to enhance the drama of the story.

“They look like small, skinny children, squatted outside our sleeping place, except that ain’t what they are. Can’t be. Not way out here in the woods, prowling before first light comes into the trees. Hoods hang over their heads to hide their all-black shiny eyeballs.”

Here, Olive is describing Tula, Pinti, and Koi, whom she initially assumes to be spooky elf children. Olive’s fear of the mythical “elf children” is a reflection of society’s difficulty with accepting the widespread presence of neglected and abandoned children.