Sophie is awake in her dormitory. The other children in her dormitory have been asleep for hours, but she can’t sleep. She notices how totally quiet it is; she wonders if this is the time people refer to as “the witching hour” (10).

She creeps to the window to look at the quiet street outside. She sees a tall, dark figure moving down the street.

The approaching figure, four times as tall as an average human, continues moving down the street, hiding in patches of shadow. The giant person, wearing a black cloak and carrying a trumpet-like object and a suitcase, peers into the windows of houses. It pours something into its trumpet from a jar and blows the trumpet it into the window of the house across the street, where Sophie knows that Michael and Jane Goochey—the children of the greengrocer—sleep. The trumpet blowing makes no noise.

The Giant looks across the road and sees Sophie. Sophie registers a long, wrinkled face, huge ears, a sharp nose, and piercing eyes. She runs to her bed and hides under the blanket.