“Helga, daring as any boy, dove straight at them so there was a clamor of yells and a tangle of windbreakers, caps, sweaters and mittens.”

In the exposition, Helga Thomsen is characterized as brave and daring. Helga’s bravery in the opening chapter foreshadows her later, far more significant bravery in leading the children through the watching Nazi soldiers. Furthermore, McSwigan uses this opportunity to illustrate the freezing Norwegian temperatures. Even though it is spring, the children still play in the mountains of snow and need numerous layers to stay comfortable, including windbreakers, caps, sweaters, and mittens. The children’s hardiness in these conditions foreshadows the gold-smuggling scheme, which requires the children to sled long distances through the snow.

“Up in the Arctic Circle where these children lived, it was winter for much of the year. Sleds and skis were used for travel for all but a few months. But accustomed as the people were to the long cold and the white stillness, the winter of 1940 surpassed anything even the oldest could remember.”

With this quotation, McSwigan further sets the scene; the lives of the Norwegians living in Riswyk are adapted around the extreme weather. Their ease with using sleds and skis foreshadows the gold-smuggling scheme, which will be introduced in subsequent chapters. Furthermore, the collusion of the weather in the Norwegian scheme is foreshadowed in the extreme and long-lasting winter of 1940. The continued snowfall allows the children to continue sledding, which is essential for the movement of the gold bars to Snake fiord. Environment as Ally is also introduced as an important theme.