Condensed Milk is set within a Soviet gulag, where most of the prisoners are forced to conduct hard labor while malnourished, unable to muster the strength to escape. Shestakov, the only named character, has been given office work and relatively comfortable conditions. He makes an offer to the protagonist to join in an escape attempt, which the latter deduces is a false plan meant to secure Shestakov's own position. The climax occurs in the end of the sequence in which the protagonist receives and drinks two cans of condensed milk, then refuses the deal on which the cans depended. By doing so, the protagonist gets the best possible result out of the current situation; receiving essential nourishment without giving in to what he knows is a sham of an escape attempt. The refusal is a risk, and relies on the idea that the cans are a small cost to Shestakov; the climax occurs when the protagonist takes this risk and gets away with it, saving his own life.
