Coraline is a young Chinese-American woman living in New York City. After losing her front-desk job at the Met and witnessing the brutal murder of her half-sister, she takes a job cleaning crime scenes in Chinatown. She struggles with intense isolation and a compulsive need for physical cleanliness to manage her anxiety. She carries heavy trauma from the subway attack, actively avoiding dark corners in her apartment to prevent visual hallucinations.

Harvey is a young Chinese-American man who works alongside Cora cleaning crime scenes for his uncle's business. He relies on a fun-loving exterior and his history of playing gory video games to cope with the gruesome nature of their work. Despite his easygoing demeanor, he carefully guards the details of his childhood and the time he spent locked in his father's basement.

Yifei is a young Chinese immigrant who completes the crime-scene cleaning trio with Cora and Harvey. Fierce and outspoken, she takes immediate initiative when dealing with the mounting number of murdered East Asian women they are hired to clean up after. She keeps her personal history closely guarded while extending practical, unsentimental support to Cora.

Delilah is Cora's confident half-sister who grew up speaking Mandarin with her mother. She harbors aspirations of moving to China to pursue a modeling career, a plan that leaves Cora feeling abandoned even before tragedy strikes. Her sudden, violent death at the hands of a white supremacist sets off the primary events of the narrative.

Aunt Lois is Cora's white maternal aunt and a devout Christian living in Staten Island. She provides financial assistance for Cora's student loans on the strict condition that Cora attends church services and completes regular confessions. Her insistence on immediate Christian forgiveness creates significant friction with Cora's fresh, unprocessed grief.

Auntie Zeng is Cora's paternal aunt who steps in to help secure an apartment in Chinatown following Delilah's death. She provides Cora with regular meals and advice steeped in Chinese folklore. She specifically warns her niece to prepare for ghost month, urging her to wear a jade bracelet for protection against wandering spirits.

Mayor Webb is the current mayor of New York City, preparing for an upcoming re-election campaign during a period of intense public unrest. He pushes an aggressively pro-police agenda and vastly increases the department budget while deflecting criticism regarding public safety and corruption.

Yuxi He is a young doctor living in Chinatown who becomes the fifth East Asian woman murdered in a recent string of killings. Her apartment serves as a crucial turning point for Cora's crew when they discover a dead bat deliberately stuffed into her drain.

Officer Wang is an East Asian law enforcement official for the NYPD. His murder introduces a glaring anomaly in the pattern of killings the crime-scene cleanup crew has been servicing, leading to immediate questions about internal police matters.

Paisley is Yifei's American roommate. She lives completely unaware that Yifei can speak fluent English, allowing Yifei to maintain a comfortable distance from her daily life and personal affairs.

Ryan is Paisley's boyfriend who spends significant time at the Chinatown apartment she shares with Yifei. He frequently takes advantage of the elaborate traditional meals Yifei prepares.

Father Thomas is a young minister in training at Aunt Lois's cathedral. He oversees Cora's assigned church cleaning duties, which serve as her penance for accidentally submitting an inappropriate photograph during confession.

Antoni Mezzasalma is a police officer who formally interrogates Cora following the murder of her sister, Delilah. His total lack of empathy during the process leaves a lasting negative impression on Cora regarding the competence of the police force.

Zihan Huang is an East Asian woman who falls victim to a brutal, axe-wielding murderer. Her apartment requires extensive cleaning from the crew, during which they discover a ventilation shaft deliberately stuffed with dead bats.

Ai Wu is a travel nurse and another East Asian woman murdered in New York City. The killer leaves a bloody bat painted on the wall of her hotel room, explicitly linking her death to the growing pattern of hate crimes.