Lessons in Chemistry

In November 1961, 30-year-old Elizabeth Zott rises before dawn everyday feeling like her life is over. She packs lunch for her daughter, Madeline, and writes notes that she slips into the lunchbox; one of them reads, “It is not your imagination […] Most people are awful” (1).

Although only five years old, Madeline is already an advanced reader; however, in a desire to fit in at school, Madeline pretends to be “illiterate” like her peers. Every morning, she stealthily extracts these notes from the lunch box and stores them away before leaving for school. Madeline wants to fit in because she sees how her mother, who has never fit in, has suffered all her life.

A depressed Elizabeth kisses Madeline goodbye before leaving for the television studio to shoot the show Supper at Six, of which she is the star.

Elizabeth used to be a research chemist. She was “discovered” for Supper at Six because a child named Amanda Pine was consistently eating Madeline’s school lunches. Madeline’s lunches, prepared carefully by Elizabeth, were always hearty and delicious; Madeline began to offer them to Amanda, the only child in her class who didn’t make fun of Madeline, as a show of friendship.