The massive project that Birkin undertakes—to recover from nearly 500 years of neglect a church mural depicting the Last Judgment—symbolizes his efforts that summer to restore his shattered psyche. He is a war-weary soldier, suffering from combat fatigue and afflicted with a facial tic and a stammer. He is burned out and suffering from the psychological impact of what he witnessed on the battlefield, unable to forget the death and certain now that no matter what a person does, mortality is the inevitable end. In addition, his broken marriage—and the infidelities of the woman he remembers loving—have left him wary of others, suspicious of emotions, and retreating into a shell. As Birkin carefully restores the mural, “cleaning down the years to the painting itself” (45), he also experiences his own sort of restoration, coming around slowly with the help of Moon, and then Kathy, and ultimately Alice. As the summer dwindles down, Birkin decides, “One thing is sure—I had a feeling of immense content and, if I thought at all, it was that I’d like this to go on and on” (61). The realization that he cannot stay there in perpetual retreat will complete his restoration.

As the mural gradually discloses itself as an unsuspected masterpiece, so does Birkin come to reveal himself in the end.