The story of The Kill is set in Paris during the reign of the Second Empire, a city that was undergoing dramatic transformations highlighted by greed, graft and conspicuous consumption. The background setting is depicted by massive public works which included demolition of broad swaths of old Paris for the construction of spacious boulevards and widespread expansion of railroads. The social backdrop tells of how the middle-class was rushing to embrace new found gold-digging opportunities and how the government was wading knee-deep in corruption and cronyism.