Chapters

A number theorist believes the stock market hides a pattern only mathematics can decode.

Max Cohen, an unemployed number theorist in Chinatown, suffers cluster headaches and paranoia while trying to program his computer Euclid to predict the market. He sees the golden spiral everywhere and believes diverse chaotic systems share a unifying pattern. His only contacts are mentor Sol Robeson, neighbor Devi, and young Jenna, who marvels at his mental arithmetic.

Euclid prints 216 digits — and a number that may be the name of God.

Euclid malfunctions, spitting out a 216-digit number and an accurate stock pick before crashing. Max loses the printout but mentions the number to Sol, who is unnerved — he encountered the same digits years ago. Hasidic mathematician Lenny Meyer shows Max Gematria in the Torah. Wall Street agent Marcy Dawson offers a classified chip in exchange for Max's work. Using it, Euclid crashes again; Max writes down the number, has a vision of market patterns, and passes out.

Three factions hunt the same secret — and Sol is gone.

Max's headaches worsen; a vein bulges from his temple. After a falling-out with Sol, Dawson's agents grab Max and demand the number — their attempt to trade with it crashed the market. Lenny rescues him and brings him to a synagogue where Hasidim believe the 216 digits are God's unspeakable name and will usher the Messianic Age. Max refuses. He visits Sol's apartment and learns from daughter Jenny that Sol died of a stroke; Max finds the number written in Sol's study.

Max destroys the number — and drills through his own skull.

Believing the number and his pain are linked, Max tries to concentrate through an untreated headache. He burns Sol's paper in the bathroom, then trepans himself with a power drill. Sometime later, Jenna finds Max in a park and asks him to divide 748 by 238 — an approximation of pi. Max smiles and says he doesn't know, finally at peace.