An aging professor of mathematics has suffered an accident that left him with only 80 minutes of short-term memory, and most housekeepers are not up to the challenge of caring for him. It’s a good setup that uses the professor’s memory limitation to explore the importance of history in relationships. It also gently plies the romance of mathematics, which fortunately I find I can translate to a version that still holds sway with me. A few number problems are woven into the story with great skill from the housekeeper’s perspective, so that I imagine even mathophobes might enjoy them. The professor is mostly interested in whole numbers, which serve as good metaphors for individual people.