After her guests have gone, Ruth retires to what used to be her father's study, where she proceeds to breast-feed her "peculiar" son and lose herself in daydreams and fantasies. Consequently, she is startled and embarrassed when Freddie, the "gold-toothed man," comes to pay his rent and interrupts her secret afternoon ritual of suckling her son. Soon after this incident, Ruth learns that the townspeople are referring to her son as "Milkman."
The rest of Chapter 1 focuses on the background and history of the Dead family: Ruth and her husband, Macon; their daughters, Lena and Corinthians; their son, now nicknamed Milkman; and Macon's sister, Pilate, "the singing woman," a bootlegger who lives in a remote house in the woods with her daughter, Reba, and granddaughter, Hagar. Macon is a domineering, abusive misogynist who hates his wife and sister, is disappointed in his daughters, and generally ignores his son. Ruth and Macon have been married for approximately twenty years but have not had sex since Ruth's father died several years ago. Macon, who makes his living in real estate, is hated and feared by blacks, who detest his arrogance, and is ignored by whites, who use him to control the town's black population. We learn that Freddie, one of Macon's tenants, works for Macon and imagines himself a friend of the Dead family. Knowing Freddie to be an incorrigible gossip, Macon relies on him for information concerning his tenants, totally unaware that Freddie is responsible for nicknaming his son "Milkman."
As we follow Macon through a typical workday, we share his daydreams concerning his father, his sister, and his early days with Ruth, and we witness his confrontations with two of his tenants, Porter and Mrs. Bains, the "stout woman." That evening, as Macon walks home after his stressful day and passes Pilate's house, he pauses to listen to Pilate, Reba, and Hagar singing. Reluctant to return to his own house, where "there was no music," he heads back to Pilate's and, under the cover of darkness, again listens to the women singing and watches their peaceful evening ritual.
