The Mill depicts a queue of downtrodden characters making their way into a summer pavilion. They emerge on the other side reborn: youthful, joyous, and inebriated.

The landscape, wildlife and flowers are all bright and positive on the right-hand side, while what has been left behind is dull, grey and dying. As so often, Arosenius hints at the supposed healing powers of the consumption of alcohol, which he had been told was a scientific fact.

When Arosenius first presented the painting to Mr. Ragnar Hamberg and his wife Elsa, she disliked the long tongues hanging out of the miserable creatures queueing to enter the pavilion. The artist obliged and altered the painting, but on close inspection the pentimenti are clearly visible. The artist's strong lines are impossible to eradicate.