Gjorg is a 26-year-old mountaineer born and raised in the remote High Plateau of Albania. Quiet, sensible, and unusually sensitive to his surroundings, he is bound by the Kanun, an ancient code of law that mandates a cycle of revenge killings between rival families. He takes no pleasure in violence and constantly questions the traditions of his community, even as he dutifully follows them to honor his family. During his temporary 30-day truce, his profound isolation is interrupted by a brief, intense encounter with a city woman named Diana.

Diana is a strikingly beautiful, educated young woman from the modern city of Tirana. Unlike her scholarly husband, she views the ancient customs of the High Plateau with immediate horror and refuses to romanticize the region's normalized violence. She frequently endures the objectifying gazes of the rural men, maintaining a cold, forthright exterior while internally feeling increasingly alienated. Her brief encounter with Gjorg leaves a lasting impression on her, sparking a deep curiosity about the realities of the mountain people.

Bessian is a talkative, egotistical writer from Tirana who has built his literary career studying the Kanun. He views the High Plateau as a fascinating, tragic theater production rather than a real place where people suffer. Despite his extensive academic research on the region, he proves timid and fearful in practical situations, especially when he realizes he cannot control or understand his own wife's emotional state.

Mark is the uneducated steward of the blood at the kulla of Orosh. Deeply conservative and devoutly loyal to the Kanun, his primary job involves tracking the region's blood feuds and collecting the associated death taxes. He suffers from physical cramping and nausea that he attributes to "blood-sickness," a toll of his grim profession. Mark harbors a deep resentment for modern city-dwellers and progressive literature, fearing that the decline of the blood feuds will destroy his culture.

Zef is a man from the Kryeqyqe family, which has been locked in a seventy-year blood feud with the Berishas. He is targeted by Gjorg because he previously killed Gjorg's brother. His death is treated as a highly ceremonial act governed strictly by the rules of the Kanun.

Gjorg's father is a traditional mountaineer who strictly adheres to the violent expectations of the Kanun. He insists that his son carry out the community's retaliatory customs and attend the resulting funeral to secure a temporary truce. Despite his rigid enforcement of the law, he later provides Gjorg with a purse of money to wander the plateau freely during his final days of safety.

Ali Binak is a famous and highly respected interpreter of the Kanun. He travels extensively across the High Plateau with a dedicated entourage to settle complex boundary disputes and officiate the intricate rules of the local blood feuds. He acts as a living authority on the region's ancient laws, deeply embedded in the rural justice system.

The doctor is a pragmatic medical professional who travels with Ali Binak's entourage. Rather than healing patients, his specific role under the Kanun is to count and categorize physical wounds to determine the exact financial penalty owed by rival families. He openly acknowledges the grim nature of his work, recognizing that the system turns blood into merchandise.

The prince is the aristocratic ruler of the kulla of Orosh. He maintains a relatively lenient, progressive attitude toward publications that criticize the Kanun, causing significant tension with his deeply traditional steward. He represents the slow, encroaching modernization threatening the old ways of the High Plateau.

Gjorg's aunt is a rare voice of peaceful dissent within the Berisha household. Recognizing that the blood feud will soon eradicate the family's lineage, she attempts to initiate a blood settlement to save the remaining men. Her practical and compassionate pleas are ultimately ignored by the deeply entrenched patriarchs of the family.

Gjorg's uncle is a staunch, uncompromising defender of the Kanun within the Berisha family. When an opportunity for a peaceful blood settlement arises, he aggressively obstructs it, prioritizing the community's violent codes of honor over the physical survival of his own relatives.