1. Chapter 1
1.1. Sophie finds the notes
1.1.1. Is confused, looks up Møler Knag in phone book, but is unable to find anyone with that name.
1.2. Begins thinking about how everything had come into existence
1.2.1. "Everything that existed had to have a begining" (7).
1.2.1.1. "Where does the world come from?" (7)
2. Chapter 2
2.1. Sophie finds more notes, this it has pages from a Course in Philosophy.
2.1.1. Sophie is in shock, still hasn't told anyone about the mysterious notes, the notes make her think very hard, and knows that she is growing up
2.1.1.1. "She had never thought so hard before! She was no longer a child-- but she wasn't really a grown up either" (19).
2.2. Sophie realizes that grownups took the world for granted and talks to her mom about it
2.2.1. "'You've just grown so used to the world that nothing surprises you any more'" (20).
2.2.1.1. Her mom is upset that she said that to her and asks if Sophie has gotten mixed up with drugs
3. Chapter 3
3.1. The next day Sophie comes home from school and reads her next letter, and begins to ask a lot of questions
3.1.1. "She understood that people had always felt a need to explain the processes of nature. Perhaps they could not live without such explanations. And that they made up all those myths in the time before there was anything called science" (27).
3.2. The letter is about how people explained life through myths, but Greek philosophers questioned them and looked for other explanations for why the world is what it is
3.2.1. Sophie begins to make up her own stories to explain why the seasons change
4. Chapter 4
4.1. Sophie asks herself three new questions: "Is there a basic substance that everything else is made of? Can water turn into wine? How can earth and water produce a live frog? (29)
4.1.1. She ponders the questions until her next package comes
4.2. Sophie's mother finds one of the letters, and thinks that it's a love letter. Sophie doesn't tell her otherwise, so her secret is still somewhat safe
4.2.1. "Let her mother think it was a love letter. Although it was embarrassing enough, it would be even worse if her mother found out she was doing a correspondence with a complete stranger, a philosopher who was playing hide-and-seek with her" (28).