Milkweed Summary

Stopthief’s earliest memory is of running, clutching a loaf of bread to his chest. Someone is chasing him, shouting, “Stop! Thief!”

One day, just before the German invasion of Warsaw, Poland in 1939, a red-haired teenager named Uri grabs Stopthief, a younger boy, as they’re both trying to steal from the same lady on the street. Sirens are wailing, and the kid warns Stopthief about “Jackboots” (Nazi soldiers). Uri introduces himself and takes Stopthief to a stable filled with other street kids. The orphan boys tease Stopthief about his small size and obliviousness to the world around him, and they speculate that he must be either Jewish or, more likely, a “Gypsy” (a term for the Roma people, now considered to be an ethnic slur). Uri, who’s taken a liking to Stopthief, brings him home to his hideout in the cellar of an abandoned barbershop.

As Nazi “Jackboots” occupy Warsaw and begin to oppress and humiliate Polish Jews, Stopthief naïvely fails to grasp the soldiers’ cruelty; he admires their shiny boots and thinks that the soldiers like him. Uri tries to teach Stopthief to avoid Nazis and to be discreet when he goes out stealing food, but Stopthief often defies him, making Uri angry and violent toward him. Nevertheless, Uri is fond of the boy and gives him the name Misha Pilsudski. He also makes up a history for Misha, saying he’s from a huge “Gypsy” family that traveled the countryside in a wagon caravan, trading horses and telling fortunes. Misha believes him. Misha also befriends a little girl, Janina Milgrom, after he encounters her while stealing a tomato from the Milgroms’ backyard. He finds out that Janina and her family are Jewish. Misha starts stealing extra loaves of bread and leaving them for Janina’s family. Following Uri’s example, he also steals coal to help Doctor Korczak’s orphans’ home.

The following autumn, Warsaw’s Jewish residents are forced into a crowded ghetto. Despite the fact that he’s likely not ethnically Jewish, Misha goes along, alternately sleeping in the rubble with his fellow street orphans or in the Milgrom family’s cramped apartment. After a few months, he discovers that he can squeeze through a tiny gap in the ghetto wall. He begins sneaking through the wall at night to steal food from restaurants and wealthy residences and smuggle it back for the Milgroms and Doctor Korczak’s orphans. One night, the Nazis force everyone out of their buildings and make them stand at attention for hours in the snow, punishing anyone who stumbles. After Misha survives this ordeal alongside the Milgroms, Mr. Milgrom considers Misha to be part of the family despite Janina’s Uncle Shepsel’s disapproval. Misha stops calling himself Pilsudski and goes by Milgrom instead.

By the following summer, Janina has begun sneaking out of the ghetto at night to join Misha on his smuggling runs. Misha feels uncomfortable with Janina following him and knows he can’t keep her safe, but she refuses to be deterred, even as the Jackboots begin threatening smugglers with punishment. Even after Misha tattles to Mr. Milgrom, who scolds Janina, she keeps sneaking out and stealing on her own. Eventually, Misha’s orphan friend, Olek, is caught and hung for smuggling. Even though it’s risky, the kids persist—they’re too hungry to stop. One day, Janina finds a milkweed plant thriving in an alley. Its fluffy seeds delight her, making her think of angels. Meanwhile, on a smuggling run to the Nazi hotel, Misha runs into Uri, who hasn’t been spending much time with the other orphans lately. Uri is working in the hotel, and he makes a confused Misha promise not to call him Uri and threatens to shoot him if he comes back.

That winter, Janina’s mother, Mrs. Milgrom, dies of a long illness. Conditions in the ghetto are growing even worse. More and more orphans wander the streets, and seven new people crowd into the Milgroms’ tiny space. Food becomes scarcer and scarcer. Mr. Milgrom invites Misha to celebrate Hanukkah with the family for the first time, saying that Jewish people must never forget how to be happy. Janina, however, is growing despondent. Misha cheers her up by searching the entire city for an egg just for her.

One day, Uri unexpectedly appears in the ghetto and warns Misha that trains are coming to deport the ghetto residents. He urges Misha to run and to never to board a train, no matter what. Misha warns his friends and family about the coming deportations. Sure enough, trains arrive and begin transporting people away from the ghetto, street by street, and some people are convinced that they’ll be resettled in Jewish villages in the East. An old man, claiming to have escaped, appears in the ghetto and warns everyone that the “resettlement” rumor is a trick, that people are being killed and their remains burned in ovens. Most people mock him, but Mr. Milgrom quietly warns Misha to flee Warsaw with Janina. Misha realizes that Mr. Milgrom knew about the nighttime smuggling and didn’t try to stop them, knowing that the children might be safer outside the ghetto than in.

One night, Misha and Janina struggle to reenter the ghetto after smuggling—the usual holes have been filled in. When they finally squeeze through an open gate by the train station, they discover that Mr. Milgrom is gone. Janina runs toward the trains that are about to depart, and Misha loses track of her in the crowd. He finally sees her in a soldier’s arms, being tossed through the air into a boxcar. Misha thinks that, while airborne, she looks as graceful as a milkweed seed. The next thing Misha knows, he’s being clubbed and kicked by a Nazi. The Nazi has a familiar voice and red hair—just before the Nazi shoots him, Misha recognizes the young man as Uri. When Misha eventually regains consciousness, he finds that his ear has been shot off. The trains are gone. Misha follows the tracks out of the ghetto, hoping to catch up with Janina.

Misha wanders down the tracks for a long time, hungry, in pain, and hallucinating. After some days, a Polish farmer finds him. Misha is forced to live in the farmer’s barn and work for him; the farmer ties him to a post at night. Although the farmer’s wife, Elzbieta, shows him kindness, Misha is enslaved there for three years. Finally, one night, the farmer’s wife unties him, gives him a loaf of bread, and tells him to run.

By the time Misha escapes the farm, World War II is over, and thousands of displaced people are wandering along the train tracks. Misha gradually makes his way back to Warsaw and finds that the ghetto has been reduced to rubble. He finally begins to understand that Uri, though he’d been dishonest about his membership in the Nazi regime, was trying to spare him from death in a concentration camp. Misha learns how to function in mainstream society, but he always drifts back to stealing. Eventually, he saves up enough money to move to the United States.

In America, Misha (renamed “Jack” at immigration) struggles to find stable employment, but he discovers that his real talent is telling stories of his life in the ghetto. He spends much of his time standing on street corners in Philadelphia, talking and talking about his past. Though most people dismiss him as crazy, some occasionally stop to listen. One day, a woman named Vivian listens and befriends him. They eventually get married, but because Misha is difficult to live with—he has nightmares, struggles with social norms, and sometimes commits petty theft—Vivian ends up leaving after a few months. Misha suspects that Vivian is pregnant. Misha goes back to talking on street corners until one day, decades later, a lady in her seventies kindly touches his mangled ear and tells him, “We hear you […] It’s over.”

One day, Misha is working at a grocery store, stocking shelves, when a young woman approaches him. The woman introduces herself as his daughter, Katherine. She has been searching for her father for years. She also introduces her daughter, four-year-old Wendy. Wendy has no middle name—Katherine has been waiting for Misha to give her one. Misha immediately chooses “Janina,” and Katherine invites Misha to move in with her and Wendy. Misha spends his last years caring for Wendy Janina, who calls him “Poppynoodle.” He plants a milkweed plant in the backyard to remind him of Janina, though Janina’s story is the only one he’s always kept to himself. Wendy’s happy voice finally silences the voices of Jackboots in Misha’s mind.