Hewett City is home to the Constantine family residence, a place whose size, gardens, and carefully appointed rooms make a strong impression on Dominick Birdsey. His first visit, while he is dating Dessa, gives the location both a concrete domestic presence and a social meaning: it makes the disparity between their families difficult for him to ignore.

Setting and Architecture

The Constantine family home stands in Hewett City, sixteen miles north of Three Rivers by bicycle. It is a sprawling three-story house with an in-ground pool, tiled patio, and elaborate flower gardens. At the entrance, double doors open onto a marble-floored foyer; the living room contains velvet sofas and chairs, oil paintings of Dessa and her sister, and a massive grandfather clock.

The clock’s size, workmanship, and tone impress Dominick in particular. He compares it with the clock at the S&H Green Stamp store that Ma had loved and saved for but never obtained. The comparison turns the house’s furnishings into a measure of unequal circumstances: whenever Dominick enters, he feels the smallness of his own family’s world.

Dominick’s First Visit

Before meeting the family in person, Dominick hears Dessa describe her parents’ expectations over the phone. He then pedals his Columbia three-speed up the house’s U-shaped driveway, enters the backyard, and parks in the garage beside Dessa’s mother’s dormant Chrysler Newport. His arrival is marked by the effort of the long ride and by the contrast between the modest bicycle and the imposing property.

Dominick experiences the visit as both exciting and defiant. The house is not simply a backdrop to his courtship: its impressive scale makes him acutely conscious of being an outsider, while the act of coming to see Dessa gives the visit a charge of independence.

Family Rules and Significance

The residence is also a place shaped by Dessa’s father’s protective authority. Before the family’s trip to Greece, he has a security system installed and secures promises that his brother will check on Dessa. He has also told her not to entertain male company alone, particularly the musician who had manhandled her. The house’s security and its rules make domestic protection inseparable from parental control.

That tension frames Dominick’s first approach to the home: the Constantines’ wealth and formal household order stand alongside restrictions on Dessa’s choices. Hewett City thus locates both the material distance between the couple and the family expectations surrounding their relationship.