The story begins with a description of the setting. The narrator calls it “a forest of mixed growth somewhere on the eastern spurs of the Carpathians” (15). Not only does the opening place the tale in a natural setting, but the use of the word somewhere indicates that the specific place is not important. As with many of Saki’s stories, the setting and characters serve as archetypes or perhaps stereotypes. Rather than exploring the natural history of a specific place, or the psychology of a specific person, the story examines and generic type of environment and the type of people who occupy it.

A paragraph later, the narrator confirms this literary approach: “the narrow strip of precipitous woodland that lay on its outskirt was not remarkable for the game it harbored or the shooting it afforded, but it was the most jealously guarded of all its owner’s territorial possessions” (16). It is steep and unremarkable, which highlights the absurdity of the intergenerational feud between the von Gradwitz and Znaeym families. For Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym, now the heads of their respective families, the squabble is less about a specific piece of land and more about abstract ideas of family honor.