Vera is a 23-year-old educated landowner who returns to her family estate following the death of her parents. Having spent the last decade in the city, she struggles to reconcile the progressive ideas she reads about in books with the stagnant, impoverished reality of provincial life. She possesses wealth, youth, and status, but feels deeply unfulfilled, dreaming of becoming a doctor, scientist, or mechanic while remaining entirely unsure of how to begin.

Auntie Dasha is Vera’s 42-year-old paternal aunt who manages the Kardin estate. She attempts to maintain a youthful, fashionable appearance, walking with tiny steps, and runs the household with a frenetic, deeply anxious energy. Dependent on Vera’s inheritance to pay the estate’s mortgage, she actively pushes for her niece to marry a wealthy local doctor to secure their financial future.

Dr. Neshtchapov is a local physician who holds part ownership in a newly built nearby factory. He presents a polite, handsome figure but rarely speaks, giving Vera the impression of a completely uncultivated mind. He focuses more on his factory operations and strict societal etiquette than on intellectual pursuits or the humanity of the local peasantry.

Alyona is a young peasant girl employed as a household servant by Auntie Dasha. She is extremely nervous about losing her job, which causes her to frequently drop and break items. Her constant mistakes make her the target of both Dasha’s arbitrary firing practices and the family's misdirected frustrations.

Vera's elderly grandfather is the declining patriarch of the Kardin estate. Once a fearsome landowner who ruthlessly beat his servants with a birch stick, he is now reduced by age to a stout, red-faced man who spends his days eating and playing cards. He represents the violent, decaying legacy of the Russian aristocracy.

The peasant laborer is a young man and former soldier hired to work on the Kardin estate grounds. He lives a nomadic life, unattached to any specific home or family. His ability to move freely and his frank discussion of his illegitimate birth provide a sharp contrast to the rigid, trapped existence of the estate's wealthy owners.