Miles is a perpetual graduate student who has spent 14 years working on a dissertation about Russian folktales. Acting as the primary caregiver for his two children, he often feels overshadowed by his wife's thriving academic career. He views their move to the country through a highly romanticized, literary lens, hoping to find authenticity and inspiration through physical labor and local interactions.

Kate is a highly successful English literature scholar specializing in John Milton and William Blake. Her practical approach to life was forged during an early battle with multiple sclerosis, an illness currently in remission. She provides the primary stability for the family and approaches their rural retreat with the same disciplined focus she applies to her academic seminars.

Wesley is the 12-year-old son of Miles and Kate, characterized by a highly analytical mind. He engages deeply in a complex world-building game called Cosmos, using it to create order and logic. He channels his curiosity into investigating local properties for the school newspaper, frequently correcting adults on factual errors.

Olive is a nine-year-old girl who readily embraces the romanticized vision of her new country home. Imaginative and artistic, she deeply believes in the magical elements of the bedtime stories her father tells her. Her trust in these narratives shapes her interactions at school and pushes her to explore the woods behind her house.

Andrei is a former biochemist who abandoned his promising scientific career to follow his academic wife to Greensbury. Struggling with depression over his stalled professional life, he attempts to find healing in pastoral labor, particularly the rhythmic act of scything. He operates an orchard in pursuit of an authentic, pre-industrial lifestyle.

Snowflake Bentley is an eccentric Greensbury local and mathematical genius who operates from a decommissioned ambulance filled with card catalogs. He dedicates his time to compiling an "Encyclopedia of Foolish Errors" to document human unreason. He provides a highly specific, logical counterpoint to the town's prevailing mythologies, despite claiming to be possessed by the benign spirit of a historical photographer.

Nausicaä is the young drama teacher at the local elementary school. She brings an energetic, subversive approach to her work, specifically emphasizing the erotic and surreal subtext of Shakespeare's texts. Her creative vision injects life into the community's children and parent volunteers alike.

Giuseppe is a Lagotto Romagnolo, a breed of truffle-hunting dog, belonging to the Krzelewski-Petrosian family. He possesses an intense, instinctual drive to excavate, frequently turning up caked in strange clay. His obsessive digging slowly unearths the hidden geography beneath the family's rented home.

Hugh is a boastful local nature guide who freely shares stories about his celebrity clients. Despite presenting himself as an outdoor expert, he frequently misstates basic natural facts. He possesses a deep fascination with local subterranean legends and historical oddities.

Kayleigh is a pregnant elementary school teacher with a strong survivalist streak. She spends her free time aggressively patrolling her property borders in full camouflage with a crossbow, maintaining a long-standing, informal border dispute with the neighboring state.

Miranda is an associate professor who has heavily researched the social dynamics of Greensbury. She acts as an informal translator for the transplant family, explaining the dense web of local lore, historical grievances, and interpersonal conflicts that define the town.

Bjorn is a celebrated Norwegian war veteran and former Olympic skier who lost and reattached his foot during military service. He serves as a capable, heroic figure in the community, teaching locals the precise techniques of skate skiing while quietly handling his own personal difficulties.

Earl is a local historian who meticulously tracks the region's 19th-century folklore and geological anomalies. He grounds the town's more fantastical beliefs in tangible archival research, presenting newly discovered letters and family anecdotes to piece together forgotten narratives.

Candace is an online influencer who runs a popular homesteading blog called Farm Candy. While she projects an image of gritty agricultural competence and domestic bliss to her followers, she actually struggles to maintain her property and relies heavily on digital artifice.

Known communally as "The Rat Man of Vermont," he is a large, affable exterminator who freely shares odd stories with his clients. He diagnoses the Krzelewski-Petrosian home as sitting directly on an ancient, untreatable rodent migration path.

Paloma is a highly successful academic whose career dictated her family's relocation to Greensbury. She is deeply practical and takes quiet, decisive actions to maintain the household and protect her husband's pastoral lifestyle.

Harper is a tough, worldly classmate of Olive's who takes pride in her family's hunting background. She provides a harsh dose of reality to the school environment, frequently challenging the more fantastical beliefs of her peers.