Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, graphic violence, sexual harassment, rape, child sexual abuse, child abuse, and physical abuse.

Lisbeth Salander lies strapped to a bed in total darkness, listening for footsteps. She has been imprisoned for 43 days. Fantasizing about a moment when she felt powerful, Lisbeth remembers pouring gasoline on a man in a car and then lighting him on fire (an event that she will later refer to as “All The Evil”). A man whom Lisbeth hates enters the room and watches her. He tells her that it is her 13th birthday and then touches her forehead. She tries to kick him, knocking the sheet from her body. He tightens the straps holding her down and binds her ankles. She knows that he is aroused, but he leaves, allowing Lisbeth to go back to her fantasy of lighting a man on fire.

A single paragraph explains that equations are classified by the exponent of their unknowns. The equation 3x – 9 = 0 (root: x = 3) is given as an example of a first-degree equation, while higher-degree equations have multiple possible answers for their unknown variable.