The Midnight Feast is set in the small fictional town of Tome in the real county of Dorset on the southern coast of England. The plot centers tensions and conflicts between the wealthy, landed gentry who live in the large manor house—the Meadows family—and the working-class locals. Lucy Foley explores these class tensions through Bella’s anxieties around her teenage friendship with Francesca, and the internal push and pull she experiences between the approval of Francesca and her desire to connect with Jake. In Foley’s dual timelines, the locals’ vocal complaints about The Meadows family, The Manor, and its guests weave this tension as connective tissue between the past and the present.

As a teenager, Foley undergirds Bella’s coming-of-age arc and eventual loss of innocence with her internal conflict—both drawn to and repulsed by Francesca and wealth and glamour. Friendship with Francesca opens certain doors for Bella; she is given an expensive swimsuit, access to luxurious surroundings, and a glimpse of how the other half lives. However, Francesca sees herself as superior to Bella because of her wealth, treating Bella less like a person and more like an object—something Hugo Meadows makes explicit, telling Bella: “[Y]ou know how other people like collecting things? Like football cards? Birds that collect shiny things for their nests? Lil sis likes collecting people” (91).