The scene takes place in the 1600s somewhere in the heart of the Mohawk Valley about 30 miles west of the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers near Troy, N.Y. The view is to the southeast toward the Mohawk River where it flows through a narrows called the Noses, several miles west of Fonda, N.Y. The setting is a day in late August when the corn is beginning to mature. This is the time of the Green Corn Festival, one of the Iroquois' days of thanksgiving.

At first glance the title of this diorama, "The Three Sisters", appears to reference the group of young women working together to tend the crops at the center of the scene. However, the sisters in question aren't actually of the human variety, but rather, refer to the three principal crops of corn, beans, and squash that the Iroquois and other Native American groups in the northeastern United States relied upon for sustinance throughout the year. Since the 1300s, the Iroquois had been planting these three crops together to enable the unique properities of each plant to aid in the growth and development of the others. In this process, known as companion planning, the base of the corn stalks would serve as poles for beans, the roots of the bean plants would nourish the corn by fixing nitrogen in the soil, and the winding vines of the squash would help reduce invasive weeds.