There is always another story / There is more than meets the eye.
-- Gamache (Chapter 2)

Importance: When Gamache and Beauvoir first work together, Gamache tells Beauvoir that there is always more to a story than there might appear to be on the surface. Gamache tells Beauvoir this as much to remind himself that things are often different than they seem as he does to teach Beauvoir about life.

The fourteen white roses on stage represented each young woman murdered that day, thirty years and a stone’s throw away from where they now stood.
-- Narrator (Chapter 3)

Importance: Fiona is not readily welcomed at her graduation from the École Polytechnique because she was convicted as a murderer. The school had been impacted by a mass murderer who killed fourteen women. The women are represented by the bouquet of white roses displayed on a table during the graduation ceremony.

These children were currency. Investments. As was the studio photo...
-- Narrator (Chapter 6)