Part One: Chapters XII through XV Summary

As Kira is returning home one evening with a loaf of bread, she encounter Irina, who says that Kira's family are literally starving. She says the man who'd hired them to package the saccharine has been arrested and that they're desperate. Kira sends the loaf of bread and Galina arrives at their home the following day. She begs them to forgive the family's harsh words and offers to return the unused portion of the bread. Kira insists that they keep it and Galina leaves, asking them to visit. Kira and Leo later go to a railway station with plans to buy a loaf of bread from the black market that naturally forms there. A man, about to be searched, distracts the soldiers by telling on a fellow traveler and causing the old woman's...