The novel occurs mostly in a fictional future New York City, permanently inundated by two major rises in seawater levels caused by climate change. Most of New York City is permanently underwater, however, people still live in the upper floors of the buildings, much like in the Venice of today.

Most of Manhattan below 46th Street is flooded, and has earned the nickname "SuperVenice". Several of the book's characters live in the MetLife Tower on 23rd Street, which the tenant association has outfitted with flood-prevention mechanisms and boat storage. Robinson chose to prominently feature the building as it was designed to resemble the St Mark's Campanile in Venice.

The affluent live in newly constructed skyscrapers in Uptown Manhattan and near The Cloisters, as both locations remain above water. Denver has replaced New York as the center of American finance and culture, and much of the United States has been deliberately abandoned by humans in order to make room for wildlife. Robinson has previously addressed sea level rise directly and indirectly in his works Aurora, 2312, and the Mars trilogy.