The Shining is set in Colorado in the 1970s. It centers on the Torrance family: husband Jack, wife Wendy, and their five-year-old son, Danny. At the beginning of the novel, Jack is hired as the caretaker of the remote Overlook Hotel for the winter offseason. He is informed by the hotel manager that the previous caretaker, Delbert Grady, killed his entire family inside the hotel. Specifically, Grady “murdered the little girls with a hatchet, his wife with a shotgun, and himself the same way.” As Jack later learns, the Overlook has a long and ghastly history. Over the years, it has housed illicit affairs, horrible murders, and mob-style executions; perhaps by consequence, its ownership has changed hands several times.
