The Shifting Heart is set in 1956, Collingwood, Melbourne on Christmas Eve. At the time, Collingwood was a poor suburb populated by lower class Australian families and Italian immigrants. The play published in 1960 by Angus & Robertson begins with two pages of stage direction. It describes the home of Italians Mr. & Mrs. Vicenzo Bianchi, the stage is their backyard. On stage left there is a large garbage can that is overfilled, the overflow is in a small household bucket. On each side of the stage is the wall of the neighbours. On stage left is the wall between the Pratt family, Leila and Donny. The wall is a fence that relaxes in the wind and shows an air of dilapidation. The boards are able to be pushed apart enough to let the Pratts enter the Bianchis' backyard. On stage right there is a wall described as a formidable barrier, complete with a length of barbed wire across the top. It is low enough for the woman living there to toss garbage over. In the first pages of dialog and notes in the stage direction, it is clear that there is a "war" going on between the family living stage right against the Bianchis because they are Italian. The Pratt family is on the side of the Bianchi family.