The story, which unfolds in slim, strange installments, becomes, among other things, a parable of marital loneliness. Balle’s time loop operates according to inscrutable rules: although Tara’s day refreshes, her body continues to age and her geographical location can change. Certain objects that she acquires, such as a toothbrush, stay with her, whereas others disappear overnight. When Tara first returns home to Clairon, she and Thomas orbit each other in their bucolic cottage, and she observes him with a keen tenderness, listening for his gentle thuds on the floorboards. On some days, Tara lets her husband in on her predicament; on others, she trails him like a shadow. The strategy she chooses makes no difference. Every morning, his memory resets.