Trama

Mona Gray is a 20-year-old loner who turned to math for salvation as a child after her father became ill. As an adult she now teaches the subject and helps her students through their own crises.

After her father's stroke, the offbeat Mona Gray gives up of all the things she likes expecting that her father will be better. When she is 20, her mother kicks her out and lies to her friend Ms. Gelband, a school principal, that Mona is a college graduate and qualified to teach third-grade mathematics, so the principal hires her. Once she settles in, Mona feels drawn to orphan Lisa Venus, and her odd behavior attracts the attention of teacher Ben Smith. One incident at school changes Mona's life for good.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Based on the book by Aimee Bender. Math whiz Mona Gray has elected to systematically withdraw from life after a mysterious illness leaves her DAD all but a shell of his former self. When she gets a job as the math teacher at an elementary school, she discovers she has an unorthodox talent for teaching and finds herself thrust back into life again, with children to care for, a man to love, and a reason to live...

The story centers on Mona Gray, who as a young girl gives up everything important to her in life, except mathematics, as part of a "deal with the universe" to help restore her father (a mathematician) to health. Years later, Mona teaches the subject, and does her best to help her students contend with their own personal crises.