Nepenthe Gardens is the retirement home where Sally Jupiter lives in California. When the story opens, Sally is already a resident. Her daughter Laurie Juspeczyk visits there twice during the story; during Eddie Blake's funeral services and at the end of Chapter XII, after she and Dan Dreiberg have assumed new identities (now calling themselves Sam and Sandra Hollis). Nepenthe is a drug bringing happiness and forgetfulness in some Greek legends.