The novel begins in medias res. Milkweed’s first-person narrator is running through the streets of Warsaw, Poland. An unknown individual pursues the narrator after the narrator steals a loaf of bread. The narrator informs the reader that the recollection often comes to him as both a dream and a memory. The dream leaves his legs tingling when he awakes.

The second chapter of Milkweed begins with a bigger, redheaded, boy named Uri pulling the yet-unnamed narrator to safety. After they are chased through streets and alleyways, Uri warns the narrator that if he is not careful, he will inevitably be pursued by a group of men called the “Jackboots,” later to be understood as Nazi soldiers.

Both of them try to steal the same loaf of bread, but despite this, Uri introduces himself to the narrator and they share the food. Uri explains the sounds of Jackboots shelling and shooting around the city. At the end of Chapter Two, the narrator finally tells the reader his name: Stopthief.