Set in medieval Germany, the story is based on the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

At this time, Germany was the Holy Roman Empire, a group of dukedoms loosely united under an emperor.

The Lueneberg Manuscript of 1450, which serves as an epigraph for the novel, sums up the little we know historically about him: "In the year 1284, on the days of John and Paul, the 26th of June, a piper clothed in various colors came and led away 130 children born in Hamelin to Calvary on the Koppen."

In the Pipeworld, pipers use their music and their minds to pull objects with invisible strings, transfer illness from others to themselves, freeze things, summon lightning, control animals, and cast terrible curses.

In the New International Version, the verse reads, "I will make boys their officials; mere children will govern them."

Though there is no reason to think that the Old Woman has magical powers, she nonetheless foretells a curse that eventually takes place.