A thread that binds the ten stories in What the Trumpeter Said is their locations—exotic for some, routine for others—like life itself. Set across Botswana and other regions of Southern Africa, as well as parts of Eastern Europe and the South Pacific, the stories feature ordinary people in extraordinary situations, disentangling themselves from ambiguous moral challenges. Several of the stories highlight moving between belief systems, featuring local residents and expatriate aid workers wrestling with racial typecasting and cultural fluidity.