The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Chapters - Stieg Larsson
Prologue: A Friday in November
An eighty-two-year-old man receives a pressed flower on his birthday, as he has every year for forty-four years, and calls retired Detective Superintendent Morell to discuss the ongoing mystery. The flower is identified as a rare Australian species, but as with all the previous flowers, there is no way to trace it. The old man is overwhelmed by emotion and weeps, tormented by the unsolved case.
On page: Henrik Vanger, Gustaf Morell
Part 1: Incentive: 20.xii - 3.i
Chapter 1: Friday, 20.xii
Mikael Blomkvist is convicted of libel against financier Hans-Erik Wennerström and sentenced to three months in prison and damages of 150,000 kronor. He faces reporters outside the courthouse, reflects on how the case began when his old school friend Robert Lindberg told him about Wennerström's fraud involving the AIA programme in Poland, and contemplates the devastating impact on his career and finances.
POV: Mikael Blomkvist·On page: Robert Lindberg·Mentioned: Hans-Erik Wennerström
Chapter 2: Friday, 20.xii
Dragan Armansky, CEO of Milton Security, reflects on his complex professional relationship with Lisbeth Salander, his most gifted but unconventional investigator. Salander presents her personal investigation of Blomkvist to the lawyer Dirch Frode, offering the surprising personal opinion that Blomkvist was set up in the Wennerström affair. Frode is intrigued enough to consider commissioning further investigation into the Wennerström matter.
POV: Dragan Armansky·On page: Lisbeth Salander, Dirch Frode·Mentioned: Mikael Blomkvist, Holger Palmgren, Erika Berger
Chapter 3: Friday, 20.xii - Saturday, 21.xii
Erika Berger and Blomkvist discuss the fallout from the verdict and decide he must resign as publisher of Millennium to protect the magazine. They spend the night together and Blomkvist reflects on their twenty-year affair and its impact on his marriage. Berger issues a press release portraying the departure as Blomkvist's choice, while both know it is strategic retreat.
POV: Mikael Blomkvist·On page: Erika Berger·Mentioned: Christer Malm, Janne Dahlman, Greger Beckman
Chapter 4: Monday, 23.xii - Thursday, 26.xii
Salander visits her mother at the Äppelviken nursing home on Christmas Eve, and Blomkvist spends the holiday with his daughter Pernilla and then his sister Annika Giannini. Frode calls Blomkvist and persuades him to visit Henrik Vanger in Hedestad, where the elderly industrialist reveals the story of the Vanger family and the disappearance of his grandniece Harriet in 1966. Vanger believes Harriet was murdered by a family member on Hedeby Island while it was cut off from the mainland by a tanker accident on the bridge, and he asks Blomkvist to investigate.
POV: Mikael Blomkvist, Lisbeth Salander·On page: Henrik Vanger, Dirch Frode, Annika Giannini, Pernilla Blomkvist, Robert Lindberg·Mentioned: Harriet Vanger, Martin Vanger, Monica Abrahamsson
Chapter 5: Thursday, 26.xii
Vanger details the events of September 24, 1966, when Harriet vanished from the island during a family gathering while the bridge was blocked by the tanker accident. He explains how the island was effectively sealed, making it a locked-room mystery, and lays out his theory that a family member murdered Harriet and hid her body in the boot of a car. Salander reads Blomkvist's book The Knights Templar with grudging respect, then scouts Wennerström's apartment building on Strandvägen, memorising the door code.
POV: Mikael Blomkvist, Lisbeth Salander·On page: Henrik Vanger·Mentioned: Harriet Vanger, Anita Vanger, Gottfried Vanger
Chapter 6: Thursday, 26.xii
Vanger shows Blomkvist photographs from the day of Harriet's disappearance and reveals the mystery of the pressed flowers - someone has sent him a rare flower every year on his birthday since 1967, which he believes is the killer tormenting him. Salander visits her hacker associate Plague to obtain an electronic surveillance cuff, then breaks into Armansky's office to read confidential files. Vanger offers Blomkvist the job: a year of investigating Harriet's disappearance, with the promise of evidence against Wennerström as a bonus.
POV: Mikael Blomkvist, Lisbeth Salander·On page: Henrik Vanger·Mentioned: Dragan Armansky, Hans-Erik Wennerström
Chapter 7: Friday, 3.i
Blomkvist reveals his plan to Berger and Christer Malm: he will take the Vanger assignment to earn money, get distance from the Wennerström fallout, and potentially obtain evidence to use against Wennerström. Despite Berger's objections, Malm sides with Blomkvist, and he departs for Hedestad. Armansky calls Salander to tell her the Wennerström investigation has been dropped, but she is reluctant to abandon the case.
POV: Mikael Blomkvist, Lisbeth Salander·On page: Erika Berger, Dragan Armansky, Christer Malm
Part 2: Consequence Analyses: 3.i - 17.iii
Chapter 8: Friday, 3.i - Sunday, 5.i
Blomkvist settles into the guest house on Hedeby Island and Vanger gives him a tour of the village, introducing the various family members who live there including his reclusive brother Harald, Harriet's mother Isabella, and Cecilia Vanger. He meets Martin Vanger, CEO of the Vanger Corporation, who welcomes him warmly. Blomkvist agrees to the arrangement: writing Vanger's biography as cover while secretly investigating Harriet's disappearance.
POV: Mikael Blomkvist·On page: Henrik Vanger, Martin Vanger, Anna Nygren, Gunnar Nilsson, Helena Nilsson·Mentioned: Cecilia Vanger, Harald Vanger, Isabella Vanger, Birger Vanger, Alexander Vanger
Chapter 9: Monday, 6.i - Wednesday, 8.i
Blomkvist meets Martin Vanger over dinner and begins studying the police investigation files on Harriet's disappearance. He interviews Vanger about the family history and the various suspects, learning about the complex family dynamics and feuds. Vanger invests in Millennium, providing financial breathing room for the struggling magazine.
POV: Mikael Blomkvist·On page: Henrik Vanger, Martin Vanger, Anna Nygren, Gunnar Nilsson·Mentioned: Erika Berger
Chapter 10: Thursday, 9.i - Friday, 31.i
Blomkvist endures a bitter winter in Hedeby while immersing himself in the case files and begins an affair with Cecilia Vanger. He has dinner with Martin Vanger and his girlfriend Eva, observing the family dynamics. He discovers that Harriet had kept a diary with cryptic entries that appear to be initials and five-digit numbers, which he cannot decode.
POV: Mikael Blomkvist·On page: Cecilia Vanger, Henrik Vanger, Martin Vanger
Chapter 11: Saturday, 1.ii - Tuesday, 18.ii
Berger visits Blomkvist in Hedeby and meets Vanger, who offers to help save Millennium by investing in the magazine. Blomkvist discovers that the entries in Harriet's diary correspond to names and telephone numbers in the Hedestad phone directory, but these people appear to have no connection to Harriet. He shares his frustration with Berger before she returns to Stockholm.
POV: Mikael Blomkvist·On page: Erika Berger, Henrik Vanger·Mentioned: Cecilia Vanger, Plague
Chapter 12: Wednesday, 19.ii
Salander's new guardian Nils Bjurman sexually assaults her during a meeting at his office, exploiting his power over her as her legally appointed guardian. Salander chooses not to report the assault to police, knowing her status as legally incompetent would undermine her credibility. Instead she begins planning her revenge, conducting a thorough investigation into Bjurman's background while coping with the trauma.
POV: Lisbeth Salander·On page: Nils Bjurman·Mentioned: Holger Palmgren
Chapter 13: Thursday, 20.ii - Friday, 7.iii
Salander investigates Bjurman extensively but finds no prior complaints against him. Meanwhile, Blomkvist continues his affair with Cecilia while working on the Harriet investigation. During a second visit, Bjurman drugs and brutally rapes Salander, but she has secretly recorded the assault with a hidden camera. She uses the video as leverage to force Bjurman to restore her financial independence and sign over control of her affairs.
POV: Lisbeth Salander, Mikael Blomkvist·On page: Nils Bjurman, Cecilia Vanger, Miriam Wu, Plague
Chapter 14: Saturday, 8.iii - Monday, 17.iii
Salander tattoos "I AM A SADISTIC PIG, A PERVERT, AND A RAPIST" across Bjurman's abdomen and establishes complete control over him. Blomkvist discovers that the cryptic entries in Harriet's diary are Bible references from Leviticus, corresponding to gruesome punishments. He links several entries to unsolved murders of women across Sweden in the 1940s through 1960s, realising he may have uncovered a serial killer operating within the Vanger family.
POV: Lisbeth Salander, Mikael Blomkvist·On page: Nils Bjurman, Henrik Vanger
Part 3: Mergers: 16.v - 11.vii
Chapter 15: Friday, 16.v - Saturday, 31.v
Blomkvist is released from Rullåker Prison after serving two months, having used the time productively to write the Vanger family chronicle. He returns to Hedeby and resumes the investigation, discovering that a photograph from the Children's Day parade shows Harriet looking across the street with an expression of shock or recognition at someone or something, rather than watching the parade like everyone else.
POV: Mikael Blomkvist·On page: Henrik Vanger, Erika Berger, Pernilla Blomkvist·Mentioned: Harriet Vanger, Birger Vanger
Chapter 16: Sunday, 1.vi - Tuesday, 10.vi
Blomkvist makes a breakthrough when he realises that in the photograph from the parade, Harriet was staring at something across the street with an expression of fear, not watching the parade. By digitally enlarging photographs, he identifies the other spectators and tracks down additional photographs that show Harriet's reaction. He connects the parade photographs to the couple he saw in a window and begins to suspect that Harriet recognised her killer that day.
POV: Mikael Blomkvist·On page: Henrik Vanger, Miriam Wu·Mentioned: Harriet Vanger, Cecilia Vanger