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At first Oskar imagines himself living in a country without bullying, but his research soon convinces him that no such country exists, at least not on Earth; so instead he imagines himself living on another planet with intelligent life that is sufficiently advanced to have eliminated all forms of violence including bullying. Hoping to learn whether such a planet exists, he begins reading books about astronomy, and soon he develops a consuming interest in it for its own sake. His father, responding to his pleas, buys him a telescope, and from then on he spends all his spare time stargazing on clear evenings and reading astronomy books on cloudy ones.
One snowy evening, having finished the last of the books he borrowed from the library, he starts staring out the window at the sky, hoping for a break in the weather that will permit him to take out his telescope and gaze at stars. Suddenly he sees a taxi pull up to the front of his apartment building. A middle-aged man emerges, carrying several suitcases, and enters the apartment building, followed by a girl of about Oskar's age, presumably the man's daughter. From the noises Oskar hears a little later, he guesses that they have moved into the empty apartment next to his own.
A few days later, after showing his class his knowledge of astronomy, he is again humiliated by Conny. That evening he goes out into the courtyard of his apartment complex, sets up his telescope and begins stargazing. His fascination with the stars soon erases all thoughts of Conny from his mind.
Suddenly he sees his new neighbour sitting on top of the jungle gym in the courtyard. She seems strange in a number of ways. She is much too lightly dressed for the winter, but the cold doesn't seem to bother her, and although she has lived in the neighbourhood for several days, he has never seen her at school. In addition, he sees that the windows of her apartment have all been covered over. Thinking that such a strange child may be more willing to be his friend than his more normal classmates, he approaches her.
The girl jumps down lightly from the jungle gym and says, "Just so you know, I can't be your friend."
To save his pride, he says, "What makes you so sure I want to be your friend?"
The next evening, his mother tells him about a murder that took place about a mile away from their home and warns him not to go beyond the courtyard of the apartment complex after dark. Uninterested in such things, he doesn't bother to find out the details of the murder.