Sophia Schliemann, a young woman lately married to Heinrich, finds herself drawn into the archaeological dig near Thymbra Farm. Of a gentle temper that does little to conceal her want of ease in society, she feels her way through the intricacies of her new life, and is often overtaken in talk of weighty matters — trade and war and the like. At a dinner at Thymbra Farm she fell into conversation with Evelyn Calvert, attending closely to that lady's observations, though her own diffidence showed plainly enough as she laboured to keep pace with the practised wits about her.
The following morning her curiosity carried her out to the terrace, where she watched Gizem Faruki at his Sufi turning. Eager to learn, she asked after the intricate steps of it — a woman glad to understand and to esteem the customs of another people.
Her gentleness, however, is shot through with concern, and above all for Heinrich, who has gone missing. In a moment of some urgency she went to Osman Hamdi Bey to voice her fears and to press for a search party to seek her husband out. Her ready part in the company's deliberations over the missing reflects a keen sense of their common plight and of the dangers that may attend it. Sophia Schliemann shows herself, in the end, a supportive and dutiful member of the party, giving thoughtful counsel upon the matters of exploration and safety, all the while bearing up under the weight of her new responsibilities and the uncertainties before her.