Synopsis

Tim is a Canadian assembly line cowboy smarting from having been laid off and replaced by a robotic arm. Mrs. Phipps is an elderly former mathematics professor for whom Tim offers to do the odd jobs of the title. And Ginette is Tim’s French-Canadian wife, whose determined self-improvement wins her a way out of the complaints department at Sears (where she works) and into the higher-paying realm of systems analyst. Snags develop when these three people’s needs intersect and their universes don’t, trapping Tim like a hypotenuse between the women. Sounds like just another drama of family conflict? The difference comes in the depth of field, the shifts of each gravitational pull and the frequent lyricism of Moher’s writing (lyrical but not mawkish). If Ginette takes the new job, it will require that she and Tim move to another town. But Tim has inadvertently become more necessary to Mrs. Phipps’ well-being than he intended — and she to his . . . . The dilemma that threatens their interdependency calls into question everything each one of them believes.