Summary

Chapter 1 – It is March, 1992. The narrator, a young housekeeper with Akebono Housekeeping Agency, has come to work for the Professor. The Professor is a hunchbacked, 64-year-old former university expert in number theory. He wears only suits and ties, and leaves hundreds of notes around the house of things he doesn’t want to forget. Some of the notes he sticks to his clothes. The Professor’s sister-in-law arranges the job, telling the narrator (the Housekeeper) that none of the other housekeepers have lasted long. The Professor lives in a small cottage behind his sister-in-law’s main house. The sister-in-law explains that the Professor was involved in an auto accident in 1975 that paralyzed his ability to learn anything new. His new memories last about only eighty minutes. The Housekeeper wonders how anyone can only live with 80 minutes of new memories, Still, she is very patient...