Three swans
The novel ends with Louie looking at three swans flying overhead together with her baby son Tom. Those three swans could be interpreted as symbols of hope for the future.
A soul astray
Louie’s impression of Stella is that she seems like a soul astray. Their encounter leaves a deep impression on Louie, growing into fascination and even obsession mixed with repulsion. She wonders what she's doing with the awful and rude man like Harrison, as she can do better, and is also critical of her promiscuity.
Secrets
Secrets are the main motif of the novel. The novel begins with Louie meeting a mysterious man who doesn’t reveal to her his name nor asks hers. The same man goes to Stella and blackmails her by knowing her lover’s secrets and plants a seed of doubt in her. Further on, Stella keeps this secret from her lover, Robert, until the very end, which ends fatally for him.
Three fathers
Roderick finally arrives to the inherited property of Mount Morris. There, he contemplates about life and inevitability of death. He calls the three men that influenced his life his three fathers, the unequal three. He calls his biological father Victor the defeated one, the cousin Francis that left him his inheritance the determining one, and Robert his unadmitted stepfather.
