Virgil, the novel’s protagonist and first-person narrator, epitomizes resilience, rediscovery, and the search for identity. The novel opens after Virgil survives a near-fatal car accident that leaves him with a foggy brain and a sense of disconnection from his former self. He says, “Everyone was nice about it, but I was a living mistake” (60). His physical and psychological trauma sets the stage for his journey of self-recovery and renewal as he learns a new way to navigate the world, which includes depending on others for help. Virgil’s experience underscores the dangers of isolation and the importance of human connection in the healing process. Virgil’s ownership of the Empress Theater, a once-thriving but now-crumbling movie theater, represents his own condition and the desire for renewal. The theater, like Virgil, is a remnant from the past that needs to be revived. As Virgil works to restore the Empress and allows others to appreciate it, he also repairs aspects of himself that have been lost, neglected, or forgotten.

Virgil’s name—which he shares with the ancient Roman poet who serves as a guide to the afterlife in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (c. 1321)—is symbolic, as he guides himself through the metaphorical underworld of his past mistakes and the unlucky town of Greenstone, but ironic since he’s not left town in twenty-five years.