The image is dominated by a black silhouette of a young girl seen from the waist up, facing left. Her long, straight hair falls down her back, and her head is bowed toward an egg she holds in both cupped hands, as if studying or protecting it. The egg is oversized — roughly head-sized — and lit from inside by an intense crimson glow that is the only bright colour in the picture, fading to dark at its edges. Behind her, softly out of focus, is floral wallpaper with large pink and pale roses on a muted grey-green ground, giving the scene a domestic, faintly old-fashioned feel. Her clothing is barely distinguishable in the dark, though a lighter collar or shoulder seam is hinted at. Across the lower third, the single word "HATCHING" is set in a wide, high-contrast serif typeface in white. Thin jagged fracture lines run vertically through several of the letters, as though the word itself were cracking open.