What is the importance that setting plays in the development of the plot in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love?

The setting is the McGinnis' kitchen table in their home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but all four of the characters are "from somewhere else." This fact is important because it shows that it really doesn't matter where these four people are from or where this story is set. It's what the two couples represent--white, working-class America--that is important. Some have called this "Hopelessville, USA" because the characters have no hope of improving their lives. The pessimistic tone grows worse as the evening wears on, and the couples get drunker. The four people "talk" but they don't "communicate". It's only when they get drunker that their true feelings come out, and their feelings reflect the hopelessness of their lives. Once the alcohol is gone, so is the conversation between them, and both couples silently sit at the end, feeling the lack of hope in their futures.