setting

Of course, any setting can be exotic if it’s unfamiliar.

When federal prosecutors arrested a man Wednesday on suspicion of setting a small fire that reignited days later into the deadly Palisades blaze, they suggested the arrest largely settled the matter of blame.

Regarding that woman in cabin 10: Lo hears an argument and splash one night shortly after setting sail and looks out to see someone in the water.

It’s the perfect setting, in other words, for a novel by Mr. Banville, who is a master of shadow and suggestion and whose protagonists are often elusive, wavering and easily corrupted.

The setting is a placid pond, on whose banks sits a plump and serene fellow in a kimono, his eyes closed.