Michael Frame (born 1951), a mathematician, former Yale University professor, and colleague of fractal theory creator Benoit Mandelbrot, explores the phenomenon of grief from a geometric perspective in his book. We grieve the loss of a loved one, a pet, a former way of life—something cherished and significant to us. How can fractals, trajectories, and variables alleviate this emotional pain?

According to Frame, understanding the "geometry" of one's emotions can aid in coping with loss. By analyzing grief as an irreversible loss, he draws on the laws of mathematics, literary plots, evolutionary biology, and personal experience. With their help, Frame develops his own theorems that allow us to see and analyze the complex patterns of emotions that comprise grief through the "self-similarity" of life choices, the theory of the multiverse, and the projection of negative emotions onto different "spaces" of consciousness.