It's the depression, but Thea is from a weathy family and their money is secure, so she is sent to a boarding school after her family finds out about her involvement with a boy. I enjoyed the parts that were set at the school, the writing was good, Thea was a fully-realized character. 
 I'm only giving this three stars though, because I felt like the pacing was off. Some scenes were too short, feeling un-finished, and some were too long, dragging. There were flashbacks to her homelife, and the scandalous involvement with a boy, which were not really flashbacks -- more like it was a dual plot line, which kept switching from boarding school to pre-boarding school life, and this constant back and forth annoyed me. There was too much about Thea's pre-boarding school family life which interrupted the coming-of-age plot that was unfolding at Yonahlossee. I only needed a few flashbacks to get the gist of what happened in her family, I didn't need to know what every Christmas ornament looked like. Overall, a good satisfying read.