"The City," Part 1, Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 Summary

Smilla's Sense of Snow is Peter Hoeg's novel of mystery and intrigue set during the 1990s in Denmark and Greenland. The protagonist, Smilla Jaspersen, extends herself beyond her solitary existence to investigate the murder of a neighbor boy whom she has befriended. Smilla's quest for the truth leads her to explore both physical and emotional places long encased in ice.

As the story begins, Smilla Qaavigaaq Jaspersen watches the big snowflakes fall in the cemetery at the funeral for Isaiah Christensen, a young boy who had lived in her apartment building. Smilla narrates the story from her perspective and transitions back and forth between the present and the past when situations remind her of her own childhood, of which the first seven years were spent in Greenland.

As Smilla watches Juliane, Isaiah's mother...