The story is formally divided into 9 segments, each of which begins with theoretical mathematic inference, followed by two subheadings, a and b, which tell the story from the third person omniscient narrative viewpoint. Mathematical segments deal with historical attempts to prove the inconsistency of mathematics, especially with respect to division by zero, which “allows one to prove not only that one and two are equal, but that any two numbers at all—real or imaginary, rational or irrational—are equal” (71).

Renee is a mathematics professor who tried to commit suicide and spent a brief time in a psychiatric ward. Her biologist husband, Carl, feels numb and tired due to her previous erratic behavior: “[H]e felt no more than a sense of duty towards her” (72).

As a child, Renee became infatuated with the precision of mathematics. She was a prodigy, receiving her doctorate at 23, but for her it was all about the sense of rightness that mathematics gave her.

A few weeks before her suicide attempt, Renee asks her colleague, Fabrisi, to look at her newest calculations—the first time she has ever asked anyone for help. The new formalism she developed contradicts itself.