Nancy and Andrew Ramsay are on the beach "chaperoning" Paul Rayley and Minta; Jasper Ramsay is shooting rooks; Cam Ramsay is playing on her own; Charles Tansley and Mr. Ramsay are strolling outside the drawing room window until Mr. Tansley goes to his room to work (he is a pupil of Mr. Ramsay, a university lecturer who is helping him with his thesis), and Mr. Ramsay walks about the garden reciting poetry out loud; William Bankes is watching Lily paint; and Mr. Carmichael is in a drug-induced stupor (he takes opium probably in the form of laudanum).
             The "action" is filtered through the various characters' minds, the symbolic windows within the section. The narrative is not linear; some moments happen in the "present" time while others are remembered. The trip to town, for example, is told from the memories of both Mrs. Ramsay and Mr. Tansley. In other words, we are given two perspectives of one action that occurred at a time before the "present" timeframe of this summer day in 1909.
             The reader needs to be alert to signals of time shifts throughout "The Window" section. One of the obvious devices used is the numbered divisions. For example, division II ("'No going to the Lighthouse, James,' he said, as he stood by the window....Odious little man, thought Mrs. Ramsay, why go on saying that?") is a transition from the "expedition" remembered by both Mrs. Ramsay and Mr. Tansley to "present" time.
             Division XII, after James has been taken to bed, moves the present action from Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay walking in the garden, Lily and William walking elsewhere in the garden, Nancy, Andrew, Paul and Minta walking back from the beach, to Mrs. Ramsay getting ready for dinner. The climax of "The Window" section is the dinner scene, and the section ends with the characters disbursing after dinner. The "present" time of "The Window&q...