In this paper, we reveal the formal algebraic structure underlying the intrinsic reconstitution algorithm, introduced by Singer and Shkolnisky in [9], for determining three dimensional macromolecular structures from images obtained by an electron microscope. Inspecting this algebraic structure, we obtain a conceptual explanation for the admissibility (correctness) of the algorithm and a proof of its numerical stability. In addition, we explain how the various numerical observations reported in that work follow from basic representation theoretic principles.