In Part 4, Latronico concludes the novel by looping back to aspects of Part 1. Like the novel’s opening, Part 4 consists of only one chapter. It opens with a significant shift in tense. The conclusion of Part 3 is “Like everyone else, and as in every April in Berlin, they got their heads down and waited for spring. That year it was late” (116). The first chapter of Part 4 opens with “Spring will come” (117) and the chapter continues in future tense through the end of the book. As with the transition from Part 1 to Part 2 and present to past, this is an abrupt shift in tone and style. The tone is active and quick-moving, with repeated syntax accelerating the pace. Most sentences begin with the construction “They will.”

There is a significant contrast, however, between the tone of hope and activity connoted by the future tense and Part 4’s content, reflecting The Complexities of Detachment and Authenticity. There is a sense of resignation that suggests that Anna and Tom remain locked in cycles that they are unwilling to question or break. For example, “they will be tempted to search elsewhere for what they found all those years ago in Berlin and then tried and failed to find again that winter […] How long will they be able to go on like this” (119). The rhetorical question at the end of this passage suggests that Anna and Tom do not, and will not, realize that instead of “search[ing] elsewhere” for what they need, their biggest problem is a lack of genuine connection and inner contentment, regardless of where they live.

When Anna and Tom inherit her uncle’s farmhouse, they move back to “a coastal region known for hosting lavish weddings for sheiks” (119). The idea that an area where Anna’s family is from is now “hosting lavish weddings for sheiks” once again alludes to an erosion of local culture and The Problem of Expatriate Exploitation of Local Cultures. While Anna and Tom are now once again in their home country, their attitude toward it remains more akin to that of expatriates seeking to exploit the resources around them than a desire to nurture their local community. They turn the farmhouse not into a real family home for themselves, or into apartments to rent to locals, but a luxury guesthouse that can cater to the foreign tourists and expats that drove the gentrification and rising costs of Berlin. Thus, even in their home country, Anna and Tom continue to help perpetuate the problems of expatriate culture and overtourism instead of seeking a better balance that could benefit their community.

The possibility of renovating the farmhouse into a hotel briefly suggests that Anna and Tom have found what they are seeking on a personal level, but they ultimately remain focused on outward appearances and in thrall to The Negative Effects of Social Media on Intimacy. The description of their renovation and furnishing of the farmhouse is detailed and focused on luxury, not on creating a genuine home space: “[T]hey would design all the furniture themselves—pistachio-lacquered metal frames, premium three-ply wood, marble tops […] They will choose raw bedlinen from Ostwestfalen and enamel bowls” (121). Once again, the heavy focus on inanimate objects and how luxurious they are speaks to how Tom and Anna’s new space has the same flaws as their former space in Berlin: In their eagerness to cultivate the appearance of a certain lifestyle and affluence, they do not succeed in creating a place filled with genuine meaning and personal taste. Instead, they remain committed to curating a certain image and showing off to others.

The return to their design work and focus on beauty briefly produces a reinvigoration of their love for their work: “They will […] spend many a happy hour walking among dishes with test designs hand-drawn on them in marker pen” (122). The renovation draws on their experience with hotel rebranding, first in Berlin, then in Lisbon. However, discontent reemerges before the novel concludes. They find the weekend exhausting and argue after the guests leave, dropping “barbed remarks about the weekend’s hitches, without proposing any solutions” (124). Again, they fall back on external opinions for validation: The novel ends with Anna and Tom being relieved by receiving a positive review from an influencer, suggesting that social media and the curated image of perfection remains one of their highest values.