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Part One: Chapter 1

The novel opens with Robert Smith, an insurance agent, announcing he will fly from the roof of Mercy Hospital. A crowd gathers, including a pregnant woman named Ruth Dead, who goe…

Part One: Chapter 2

The chapter moves back in time to show Macon Dead Jr., Milkman's father, as a child. His father, the original Macon Dead, was a self-made farmer who built something real out of no…

Part One: Chapter 3

Back in the present, Milkman is about twelve years old. His father, Macon Jr., is a hard, distant landlord who collects rent from poor Black tenants without sympathy.

Part One: Chapter 4

Milkman is now a young adult, around thirty-two. He has drifted through life without direction, working for his father but feeling no purpose.

Part One: Chapter 5

Hagar begins trying to kill Milkman. She attacks him repeatedly, always failing, and he stops taking her seriously.

Part One: Chapter 6

Milkman and Guitar's friendship is tested when Milkman discovers that Guitar has joined the Seven Days, a secret group that kills white people in retaliation for racial violence a…

Part One: Chapter 7

Milkman learns more about his family's past through Macon Dead's rare moment of openness. Macon describes his childhood with his father, the original Macon Dead, and how that man…

Part One: Chapter 8

Hagar, Milkman's cousin and former lover, tries to kill him. She has been doing this periodically since he ended their relationship with a casual letter, and each attempt fails be…

Part One: Chapter 9

Part One closes with Milkman and Guitar planning to steal what they believe is a bag of gold from Pilate's house. They think the green bag hanging in her home contains the gold fr…

Part Two: Chapter 10

Part Two begins with Milkman traveling south to Danville, Pennsylvania, and then to Shalimar, Virginia, in search of the gold.

Part Two: Chapter 11

Milkman arrives in Shalimar, Virginia, and the trip shifts from a treasure hunt into something stranger. The local men distrust him immediately.

Part Two: Chapter 12

Milkman goes on a nighttime hunt with the local men and something opens up in him. Moving through the dark woods without city noise or money or his father's name, he starts to rea…

Part Two: Chapter 13

Milkman talks with Sweet, a local woman he becomes involved with, and the relationship is the warmest, most mutual one he has ever had.

Part Two: Chapter 14

Milkman returns north, stopping to see Pilate and tell her what he learned. He brings her the bones he found, which turn out to be the remains of her father, not the white man she…

Part Two: Chapter 15

Milkman buries Pilate on Solomon's Leap, the place where his ancestor flew from. Then he faces Guitar, who is waiting for him.