Saleh is a 65-year-old former furniture merchant from Zanzibar seeking asylum in the United Kingdom. Having survived 11 years in brutal political detention camps following his country's transition to independence, he carries a heavy history of displacement and loss. He is highly resourceful and guarded, initially using silence as a strategy to survive the bureaucratic and often degrading asylum system.

Latif is a literature professor and poet living in London. He fled Zanzibar as a young man, spending time studying in East Germany before seeking asylum in England. He consciously distances himself from his painful childhood by maintaining a solitary, highly intellectualized lifestyle, preferring to suppress memories of his family's shame and heartbreak.

Hussein is a Persian trader from Bahrain who brings incense and stories of a vast trading empire to the coastal towns. His polished, poetic courtesy masks a calculating and casually destructive nature. He operates as a trickster figure who exploits the desires, financial needs, and internal tensions of the local community for his own amusement and gain.

Rajab is a former Public Works Department clerk in Zanzibar whose life is defined by a sense of inadequacy and shame. He struggles with alcohol addiction before making a disastrous business arrangement that costs his family their financial security. Following his public humiliation, he retreats into a severe and self-punishing religious piety.

Hassan is Latif's charismatic older brother, remembered as a glowing, beloved youth who represents lost innocence for his family. He becomes the target of predatory attention from an older trader in their community. His mysterious departure from Zanzibar shatters his family structure and leaves a permanent emotional scar on his younger brother.

Asha is Latif and Hassan's mother, a beautiful and defiant woman who refuses to accept the quiet degradation of her husband's failures. She is fiercely protective of her family's honor but brings them public shame through her strategic, long-term romantic affairs with powerful men. She uses her political connections to enact methodical revenge against those she believes have wronged her household.

Rachel is a legal adviser working for a refugee organization in England. She initially approaches her work with the detached efficiency of building a bureaucratic case, focusing on logistics rather than personal histories. Over time, she attempts to look past the paperwork, arranging accommodations for new arrivals and actively seeking translation services for her clients.

Kevin is an immigration officer who processes arrivals in the United Kingdom. He views refugees not as individuals but as a collective nuisance, using his bureaucratic power to confiscate belongings and strip arrivals of their dignity during interrogations.

Celia is the landlady of a dilapidated seaside bed-and-breakfast that houses asylum seekers. She maintains a chaotic, unsanitary environment while treating her residents with a patronizing, superficial kindness that fails to mask her intrusive nature.

Bi Maryam is a woman from Zanzibar whose legal decisions regarding her property create long-lasting ripples. Fearing that her nephew's irresponsible behavior will squander her estate, she signs her house over to her stepson, sparking a generations-long resentment.

Salha is a woman in Zanzibar who marries a local furniture merchant. She experiences multiple tragic pregnancy losses before successfully having a daughter, but her life is cut short by a severe illness while her husband is imprisoned.

Ruqiya is the young, beloved daughter born to a Zanzibari furniture merchant and his wife after years of difficulty starting a family. She tragically contracts typhoid during a period of political upheaval.

Abdalla is a powerful government minister in Zanzibar who maintains a long-term affair with a married woman. He uses his considerable political influence and the newly established post-independence bureaucracy to assist his romantic partner in punishing her enemies.

Jan is a young German man who connects with an exchange student studying in the German Democratic Republic. Dissatisfied with life behind the Iron Curtain, he ultimately plans and executes a daring escape into West Germany alongside his new friend.

Elleke is a woman living in East Germany who shares her family's complex history with visitors. Her family experienced displacement from colonial Kenya, demonstrating how shifting national borders affect cultural identity and physical safety.

Ali is a student in East Germany whose family was heavily persecuted by the post-independence regime in Guinea. He bonds with his roommate over their shared experiences of geopolitical violence and the restrictions placed upon them by the host country.

Alfonso is an outspoken asylum seeker from Angola who is placed in a rural English detention center. He shares his limited resources with newcomers and attempts to maintain a sense of community within the harsh holding facility.

Ibrahim is a refugee residing in a squalid English bed-and-breakfast. Frustrated by his own state of limbo, he regularly participates in taunting the quieter, more isolated residents of the house.

Georgy is an asylum seeker living in temporary seaside housing. Along with other residents, he frequently mocks and alienates new arrivals, reflecting the hostile social dynamics that develop among the displaced.