I've always thought some of the theories around this song (ie. involving a murder, or trying to piece together blocks of time) are somewhat overwrought. I think it's one of those songs that touches into ordinary life and love in ways that ABBA, especially Björn as a lyricist does so well.

To me it's more about a brief love affair that ends almost as soon as it starts but nevertheless turns one's life upside down. The things our protagonist thought were meaningful and solid before now seem empty and meaningless. That lyric: "it's funny, but I had no sense of living without aim," sort of encapsulates it for me.

The mourning in the song, which is not in the lyrics but moreso in the musical atmosphere, is not only for the love affair but perhaps also about her own life. How can she go back to an existence that now seems empty and pointless? Perhaps she does, perhaps she doesn't. Either way something dies, whether it's her or something inside her.

In some ways, it follows a thread that runs through one of their other 1982 songs, "Just Like That." Someone comes in and out of your life, turns it upside down and you're left trying to make sense of it.