Notes on Infinity

A framing prologue opens with Zoe Kyriakidis backstage at Harvard's Sanders Theatre, gripping a vanity, her makeup ruined by tears. She swallows four pills dry from a bottle in her suit pocket before stepping onstage to address a packed auditorium: "My name is Zoe Kyriakidis [...] And I would like to tell you a story" (3).

That story begins when Zoe, a sophomore chemistry major and the daughter of a Greek-born MIT physics professor, attends her first organic chemistry lecture. She notices Jack Leahy, a left-handed student with unruly dark hair who already knows the professor by name and asks questions far beyond the course material. They develop an unspoken rivalry, each preparing increasingly obscure questions to outdo the other. Zoe learns that Jack works in the lab of David Li, a prestigious professor whose research group she has tried unsuccessfully to join. When Jack abruptly stops attending class, Zoe finds the lectures unbearable. Weeks later, they have their first real conversation, discussing consciousness and Jack's work on TERT-based antiaging gene therapy, a technique involving the telomerase gene linked to cellular aging. Li soon invites Zoe to a meeting and reveals that Jack recommended her. She joins the lab team.

A pivotal shift comes when Jack introduces Zoe to Professor Richard Brenna, a legendary biologist famous for co-discovering how DNA replicates itself. Brenna has a nearly empty lab and offers them space to pursue an independent project. Zoe is furious that Jack shared her ideas without permission and ran an unauthorized experiment, but the scientific possibilities prove irresistible. She reads Brenna's landmark paper, is moved by its elegance, and calls Jack to say yes.

Working obsessively in Brenna's lab, they develop Zoe's information theory of aging: that aging results from the deterioration of the epigenome, the system of molecular instructions that tells each cell what to do. If cells store a backup copy of their original programming, it should be possible to reverse the process. Jack discovers a relevant DNA locus in yeast, but their early data remains fragile. After a disastrous dinner at Zoe's parents' house where her father barely engages with the project, Jack, terrified Zoe will abandon their work, manipulates a data set to make the results look stronger. He tells himself it is a one-time thing. When he shows Zoe the fabricated results, their shared euphoria leads them to kiss and sleep together for the first time. They name the project Manna and begin planning a startup.

Zoe's brother Alex Kyriakidis, a PhD student at Stanford, validates their work and connects them with venture capital contacts. Divya Kaur, a premed student whose father Viraj is a major biotech venture capitalist, helps broker early funding. Zoe and Jack take leaves of absence from Harvard. Carter Gray, Jack's roommate and a philosophy and computer science double major, joins the team and eventually begins dating Zoe. The relationship is pleasant and safe but lacks the intensity of her bond with Jack.

Manna grows rapidly. Zoe delivers a TEDx talk explaining her theory that goes viral, transforming her into a public figure. She becomes CEO while Jack serves as chief scientific officer. They secure a Kendall Square office in Cambridge, are featured in Vogue, and grow to 150 employees. Behind the scenes, Zoe begins misusing prescription medication to cope with mounting anxiety.

Jack's fraud has not stopped. Each funding round requires an "inflection point" to justify a higher valuation. When legitimate results fail to materialize, Jack cherry-picks data, discards negative results, and structures his lab so no single employee sees a complete experiment. Mira Joshi, a lab scientist, warns Zoe that she cannot reproduce Jack's results. Zoe promises to investigate but dismisses the concern.

Carter leaves Manna and breaks up with Zoe, telling her he believes Jack's projections are unrealistic. He takes a job at Regenera, a larger biotech firm. Zoe interprets his departure as betrayal. Jack then takes Zoe to central Maine for a funeral, where they drive back roads at sunset and lie under a sky blazing with stars. On the drive home, they sing along to "Take It Easy" by the Eagles, and their relationship crosses into romance. Back in Cambridge, they buy a house together.

One Sunday, Zoe brings Jack lunch at the lab and, finding him absent, examines printouts on his desk. She discovers 39 deleted data sets and a single weak positive result marked "KEEP" (238), its graph stretched and relabeled "Representative sample" (238) in a board presentation. Her hands go numb. She looks up, and Jack is standing in the doorway.

The novel shifts to Jack's perspective, revealing his traumatic childhood. Around age six, he called 911 after a violent incident involving his mother's boyfriend and was sent to live with his great-grandparents in rural Maine. His great-grandfather, a mechanic, taught him through silent observation and became his only real parent. A high school science teacher channeled his intelligence toward a lab internship. His great-grandfather's death from a terminal illness, kept secret from Jack, became the engine of his obsession with defeating aging. Rejected from MIT, he received a surprise admission to Harvard with full financial aid.

After Zoe discovers the fraud, they agree on a plan. Jack will develop a new drug called Beta, based on Yamanaka factors, cellular reprogramming factors that represent a less ambitious but legitimate approach to reversing aging. Zoe will buy time with investors. A Wall Street Journal exposé and scientific op-eds call for investigation. Zoe handles damage control while her dependence on medication worsens. Jack completes Beta, producing legitimate, reproducible data showing modest lifespan increases in mice. He realizes the data alone cannot save them, but Beta plus his own confession could give Zoe a path forward: real science and plausible deniability. He emails the data to Zoe and writes three documents: a letter explaining what he has done, an addendum exonerating her, and a note that says only "I love you." Jack dies by suicide in the Manna lab at age 24.

The aftermath unfolds through headlines and courtroom proceedings. Zoe enters a rehabilitation center. Jack's suicide note is published, revealing the data manipulation. His mother publicly accuses Zoe of theft after learning Jack bequeathed his shares to her. Zoe is indicted on criminal fraud charges. At trial, her defense rests on Jack's note stating she is "guilty of nothing but trusting me" (347–348). Carter and Alex testify she was unaware of fraud, but Mira Joshi's diaries prove Zoe was warned and failed to act. After seven days of deliberation, the jury finds Zoe innocent on all counts.

In the novel's final section, Zoe lives with her parents, barely functional, her head shaved. She signs off on selling Manna's intellectual property to Merck. While jogging, she sees a raven that recalls the Epic of Gilgamesh, which Carter once recommended: A raven that does not return signals the end of a great flood. Alex visits and tells her Jack gave her another life, and she must use it.

A second-year MIT PhD student named Lily Harmon emails Zoe persistently about epigenetic aging research. After weeks of avoidance, Zoe agrees to meet. At the café, Lily shows her data, and Zoe feels an idea hovering at the edge of her mind, a sensation she has not experienced since before the collapse. She asks for a pencil and says, "Let's start with your fundamental questions." In the novel's closing pages, an imagined Jack asks, "Do you want to live forever?" (383). Zoe meets his eyes and answers yes. Her final words mirror his note: "Dear Jack, I love you / Zoe" (384).