The Narrator is an eleven-year-old girl living on a rural Canadian farm. She actively prefers outdoor labor with her father to domestic chores indoors. Resourceful and imaginative, she tells herself stories at night where she plays the hero in dangerous situations. She approaches the impending expectations of womanhood with heavy suspicion and reluctance.

The Narrator's Father is a quiet, hardworking fox farmer who raises animals for their skins. He focuses entirely on his job and rarely speaks unless necessary, earning his daughter's deep respect. He represents a world of masculine authority and invention, keeping calendars featuring heroic frontier scenes and admiring stories of survival.

The Narrator's Mother manages the domestic sphere of the family farm, dedicating her time to canning fruit and other indoor labor. She frequently tells stories about her youth and longs for a daughter who will help with domestic chores. She feels isolated in a household largely focused on outdoor work.

Laird is the narrator's younger brother, a young boy who initially shares his sister's childhood fears of the dark. As he grows, he naturally gravitates toward the masculine world of the farm without questioning it. He eagerly seeks inclusion in the men's activities, transitioning entirely away from the childhood games he shares with his sister.

Henry Bailey is the family's hired hand who assists the father with large, difficult jobs on the farm. He possesses a strange physicality, dealing with bronchial troubles and an odd ability to make his stomach growl at will. He serves as an additional figure of masculine authority who helps usher Laird into the adult male world.

Mack is an old, cast-off local horse purchased by the family to be butchered for fox food. His presence on the farm serves an entirely utilitarian purpose for the father, but he inadvertently becomes a catalyst for the children's shifting understanding of life, death, and adulthood.

Flora is a spirited horse bought by the family to be put down and used for fox meat. Unlike Mack, she displays sudden bursts of energy and rebellion, prancing and rearing up like a horse in a Western movie. Her fierce instinct to survive deeply resonates with the narrator.