The topographical specifics of the novel’s locations of action are associated with the problem of power. The New City built during the period of the Russian Empire and other similar places, such as the Physics faculty and the KGB building, encourage the characters to ponder Soviet ideology and its everyday reality.
Like Vilnius Poker, the city of Vilnius plays an active role in the novel, and like in Vilnius Poker it is an unstable place, sometimes impertinently switching to the city of Chicago and back again without warning, moving a house to stand directly in a character’s way in order to mock him, or changing the streets to lead to unseen waste lands instead of the familiar expected neighborhoods. Most of the novel’s action takes place in the New City, but the Old Town still plays an important role as the site of the University of Vilnius, where a number of the characters are students. This is the location where the freedom dance of Vilnius breaks out.
The landmarks of Vilnius are usually seen at eye level. The only panorama in the novel appears at the very end of the novel, when Tomas Kelertas, transformed into a crow, views Vilnius from above. a view that correlates with the freedom the hero has attained.