The novel takes a sudden shift to the life of Hilde. She awakens on the morning of her 15th birthday in Lillesand, knowing her dad will be home on Midsummer Eve in a week. A thunderstorm the night before woke Hilde many times from her sleep. Hilde goes out to the dock and reminisces about the time she lost the boat in the water and had to trudge through the marsh home. She has a large garden that isn’t well kept, but she still loves it. Due to the “bjorketreer” (284) trees growing in the area, Hilde’s house was renamed Bjerkely, but it was also called the captain’s house after her grandfather who built it. Hilde goes back into her room and stares into the mirror passed down from her great-grandmother. It is said to be magical and that it allows a person to wink with both eyes at the same time, but Hilde has tried many times and never succeeded. Hilde then notices a bright blue present sitting on her table. It is from her father, and she believes it is the present he has been hinting about. She opens it to find a ring binder filled with many typewritten pages; it is a book entitled Sophie’s World, and it begins just as the actual novel does.