The composition of this painting is dictated by the "caves" metaphor running through the narrative and reflected in the title. The figures of Baley and Daneel are surrounded by the vast metal "cave" of an Earthly city.

The political tension which provides a nervous undercurrent to the narrative is indicated in the stickers and posters stuck on the escalators—a part of city life since Pompeii and visible, of course, in any contemporary metropolis today.

The problem here was how to reveal Daneel as a robot when he is described as looking exactly like a human being! Fortunately there are a couple of scenes in the book where Daneel "opens up"–literally–and reveals his inner makeup to Bailey.