The town is nestled into the steep valley of a tributary of the river Steinach just below the ridge of the mountain chain, the well-known Rennsteig.

Clean water is one of the requirements for making glass, the others being the availability of sand (from a nearby quarry in Steinheid), natron, potash, and a sufficient supply of timber.

Since the completion of the rail connection and the road from Steinach to Neuhaus at the turn of the 20th century, the Lauscha river has been largely confined to an underground channel.

Typically for the Thüringer Schiefergebirge, broad and almost level mountain tops surround a deeply carved-in valley.

The novel fictionalizes the invention of glass Christmas ornaments in Lauscha by imagining them as the production of a family of three sisters left to fend for themselves after the death of their father.