The first time Milkman ever sets foot in Pilate's house, he notices a "moss-green sack hung from the ceiling." Nothing is said about it. Later, when Milkman and Hagar have begun to sleep together, Milkman moves too quickly and neglects to duck under the sack: he smacks right into it. Hagar tells him, "'That's Pilate's stuff. She calls it her inheritance.'"

Hagar doesn't know this, but Pilate saw her dead father just after she'd given birth to Hagar's mother, Reba. At that time, he said "'Sing. Sing," which she interpreted as an instruction for her to begin singing (but it was also the name of her mother; Milkman later tells Pilate that "'He was calling for his wife—your mother.'"). Her father also told her that "'You just can't fly on off and leave a body.'" Pilate interpreted this to mean that she needed to return to Pennsylvania and "collect what was left of the man she and Macon had murdered."

However, Milkman later tells Pilate that her father meant that she needed to return and collect his body. Pilate does this, retrieving the bones and bringing them home in the green sack, thinking that she had the white man's bones. Macon believes it is the gold from the cave. Both are mistaken. Pilate's sack actually has the bones of her own father inside!

Milkman's father, Macon, has told him to stay away from Pilate because she is a bad woman. However, he disobeys and does go to see her. She tells him a story of what happened when she was twelve years old. Her father was shot one day, and she ran away. She and Macon hid in a cave, which was already occupied by an old white man. Out of fear, Macon killed the man. They discovered that the man had a stash of gold, and Macon wanted to take it, but Pilate prevented him from doing so. Macon left the cave, and when he returned both the gold and Pilate had disappeared.

One night Milkman tells his father that he has seen a sack hanging from the ceiling of Pilate’s kitchen. Macon thinks it’s the gold from the cave, and he talks Milkman into stealing it. Milkman and his best friend Guitar do steal the bag, but they are caught by the police. When they open the sack, they don't find gold. The bag contains the bones of the old white man!