Mileva is a brilliant woman whose aptitude for physics and mathematics gains her admission into male-only environments. She is a powerful and sympathetic central protagonist who endures many hardships throughout her journey and becomes a role model for feminism. The novel adopts her narrative voice through the first-person point of view. This grants the reader access to Mileva’s mind and emotions and creates a necessary distance between the reader and Albert Einstein. Mileva’s character development is specific to the historical context of the novel but relatable to contemporary readers.

The historical context of the 19th and 20th centuries binds Mileva to the constraints imposed by her female body and by traditional gender norms and prevents her from exercising her autonomy. Mileva begins the novel as a shy young woman but develops into a confident woman whose husband belittles her and appropriates her work, building on a career on ideas they developed together without crediting her. Mileva ends the novel on a triumphant note: She rediscovers her passion, her autonomy, and her happiness.