The distinction between what is permanent and what is transient is established from their first pages when Robinson explores the repercussions of the train derailment. What is permanent is what the lake has taken. It takes Edmund and all of the other passengers. They all perished, and since no bodies are ever found, this derailment symbolizes the permanence of death as well as the permanent aspect of the lake in what it takes and refuses to leave behind. The permanent nature of this tragedy is further illuminated through the two widows who leave Fingerbone after the accident. They leave because they believe they can still both taste and smell the tragedy, demonstrating the permanent mark this incident leaves on the community. Sylvia, on the other hand, stays in Fingerbone, showing the stabilizing influence that she is. She stays in the home her husband built and that will eventually be passed down to her granddaughters. The train is also never recovered. Trains are a very symbol of transience and impermanence, and to show that the path they lead to is permanent alludes to the theme that transience and change themselves are immutable and a necessary part of life. No situations in the novel prove to be permanent; everything changes. Sylvia’s role also speaks to Women and Housekeeping. All of the women in charge of the girls in this book bring different approaches to the act of housekeeping, and Sylvia represents one of the more traditional approaches. She has had her home bestowed upon her by her husband and keeps it in a more traditional 1950s manner. Her housekeeping will serve as a contrast to other forms of housekeeping later on, particularly Sylvie’s.

Sylvia's permanence is shown in the fact of her staying in Fingerbone, but it is also demonstrated in her view of the afterlife. The grandmother believes that all will be returned at the end of her life. This refers to both people and to objects. In this way, the one thing that no one can escape, death, is shown to be just a mere continuation of what one has always known and what was ultimately fated. The author, Robinson, is a Calvinist, and one of the central tenets of her faith is that a person is predestined, which means that what will happen to them in the afterlife has always been preordained to happen. Despite this desire for and belief in permanence, there is no permanence in Sylvia’s life. Her husband dies and leaves her a widow, and her three daughters all leave her. Toward the end of her life, her granddaughters are brought to her for her to take care of. Her desire for permanence and stability combined with her inability to achieve these prove that change is inevitable. This theme of permanence versus change is in line with one of the book's themes of American Transience and Rootedness for Women. In particular, in this era of American history, Sylvia represents a kind of traditional rootedness and predictability. But in contrast to this, she sees the world change, sees it display a kind of transience, both in terms of death and living arrangements and in terms of roles and the agency of women.

The theme of longing and loss creating love is demonstrated through the daughters’ feelings about their mother in light of their father. It is noted that the girls are more drawn to their mother because they lost their father. This shows that their feelings about their mother are intensified because they understand impermanence. They understand loss and that a person can lose a parent, and because of that, they stay closer to their mother when they are young. This reflects how the impermanent can make the seemingly permanent more urgent and can show the importance of stability. In this way, transience and permanence are not shown to just be opposite concepts but are shown to influence and impact a person’s perception of each. In many ways throughout the novel, people and objects are defined in relation to their opposite.

The portrait of the Foster home after the father’s death is shown in almost idyllic terms, and as such, the motivation of the daughters’ behavior is brought into question. While teenagers, they are all said to revolve around their mother and crave closeness to her, and yet they all leave without returning home much, if at all. Molly goes away to serve a missionary purpose, but Helen leaves to get married and does not come back frequently. Sylvie live in a transient way. Concepts of predestination suggest Sylvia’s daughters live out their fates irrespective of what she does. Sylvia’s situation also reflects the theme that people cannot make others stay. Despite the wonderful home their mother created for them, all three girls left. Moreover, the narrator states that the mother never taught her daughters how to be kind to her. This illustrates a belief that keeping an orderly and tidy house and providing creature comforts is not the same thing as teaching virtue and responsibility. Sylvia cared for her daughters’ physical needs very well, but this physical caretaking was just not enough to teach virtue. Because the daughters’ exits from their mother’s life is so absolute and so unexplained, the author asks the question of why this happened, and by failing to definitely answer that question, she demonstrates that not all questions in life are one-dimensional. The author simply observes the changing roles of women in the 20th century, as well as their changing fates. They all experience a slightly different role and individuality as their lives and the century progress.

The notion that quality love and caretaking cannot keep a person tied to another is demonstrated through the character of Bernice. Unlike the other relationships in the novel, the relationship between Helen and Bernice is not one of blood. The two women are friends. Bernice is all giving in this relationship and even watches Helen’s children during the day after working at night. Bernice takes off a week of work to loan Helen her car; Helen then leaves Bernice and her daughters and drives the car into the lake. The relationship is not depicted in detail, but enough detail is given to demonstrate that Bernice has done all she could to help Helen; this adds a further element of injustice to Helen’s death by suicide. Through this relationship, the narrator demonstrates that even the most altruistic person cannot shape the people around them through their altruism.

Central to the novel is the theme of companionship and the desire people have to hold on to others. For the characters who truly desire this constancy in companionship, relationships are demonstrated to be sources of anxiety. The grandmother accepts her husband’s death, although she views it as a defection, because she still has her daughters around her, and she believes she will reestablish a relationship with her husband in the afterlife. After her daughters leave her by choice, however, she becomes more anxious about those in her life. Ruthie notes how her grandmother’s caring for her seems to be steeped in some insecurity, and the woman seems to be lost in thought at times about her own daughters. The grandmother did all she could to care for her daughters, and now her care of her granddaughters is so deliberate that it is described as scrupulous. Sylvia has already lost, in this world, those she loves and cares for, so she no longer demonstrates a trust that she can keep other people around. Through this, she demonstrates a belief that her actions can cause other people to remain loyal or to abandon her. This gives her some agency over her life, but it leaves her feeling insecure as she places the actions of others on her own shoulders. While some characters are able to maintain lifelong friendships and relationships, Sylvia is not, despite her best intentions. This also speaks to the theme of Family Bonds and Responsibility for Women in 20th-Century America. Sylvia represents a kind of traditional, early-20th-century form of a mother and has lived in a patriarchy, in her husband’s home, for most of her adult life.