The short story’s structure signals the importance of the past in its characters' lives, interspersing flashbacks from the point of view of the protagonist with the epistolary format of Great Aunt Mary’s letters. The catalyst for this retrospection is the death of Great Aunt Mary, but the conflict stems from an incident in the youthful protagonist’s childhood, suggesting how war’s severance of relationships can create a legacy of generational trauma.

The story starts with a harsh depiction of death that foregrounds Great Aunt Mary’s fragility both physically and mentally. The author juxtaposes the protagonist’s life as a student in a relationship with Aunt Mary’s lonely end. Thus, the opening of the story primes the reader to dive deeper into the collapse of one woman’s hopes and dreams many years prior, especially as that collapse relates to death.

Although Great Aunt Mary’s lover survived the war, it soon becomes clear that the atmosphere of death was responsible for the end of their relationship and for the implied changes to both their characters in the conflict’s aftermath. In his letters from the battlefront, John grapples with guilt over seeing other soldiers die while he lives.