The Woman is an office worker who lives in her childhood home with her family. Her life is upended when a strange head composed of her toilet waste begins appearing in her bathroom, demanding to be recognized as her child. She exhibits intense stubbornness, going to great lengths to avoid the toilet and dispose of the head, even as her family dismisses her distress.

The Head is a bizarre, partially formed entity created from human waste and hair. It possesses human speech and consciousness, demanding that it be allowed to finish forming its body. It is highly persistent, returning to the toilet no matter how many times it is flushed or thrown away.

Kim Young-lan is a graduate student specializing in Slavic literature. After an unprescribed intake of birth control pills causes an unexpected pregnancy, she takes a leave of absence from her studies. She faces immense social and medical pressure to find a father for her unborn child, forcing her to endure a string of highly uncomfortable blind dates and encounters with strange men.

An unnamed storyteller whose family specializes in crafting cursed fetishes. They relay the history of their grandfather's vengeance to understand the strict boundaries of their dark trade. They maintain a respectful fear of the supernatural forces their family commands.

The narrator's grandfather, a man who crafts cursed fetishes. Driven by intense grief and loyalty after a rival business ruins his close friend, he creates a cursed lamp shaped like a bunny. He serves as a cautionary figure regarding the unintended, spiraling consequences of revenge.

The ruthless head of a large corporation. He relies on political connections and aggressive, unethical tactics to destroy his competitors and maximize the sale of cheap liquor. His greed inadvertently invites a terrible curse into his company and his home.

A teacher who survives a severe car accident but wakes up unable to see or clearly remember her recent past. As her car sinks into a swamp, she relies on an unseen voice to guide her, slowly piecing together fragments of memory regarding a ring and her professional colleagues.

The Trader is a man whose intense greed overpowers his empathy. Upon discovering a fox that bleeds gold, he imprisons the creature to harvest its blood. As his family grows, he uses his authority as a father to exploit those under his care, viewing living beings purely as property to sustain his wealth and social standing.

The male twin born to the trader and his wife. He develops a violent compulsion to harm his sister, an act that his father actively encourages and exploits once he realizes it produces golden blood.

The female twin who suffers immensely under her family's twisted dynamics. She becomes a tragic victim of her father's endless greed and her brother's violent tendencies, eventually retreating into a catatonic state.

A developer of "artificial companions," highly advanced androids designed to resemble humans. She harbors deep nostalgia for her oldest prototype and struggles with the obsolescence of older models as she sets up newer, more capable companions in her home.

The narrator's first artificial companion, an outdated android with severely limited functionality. Despite her failing hardware, she shares a deep, complex history with her owner and possesses a hidden capacity for independent thought and synchronization.

A young man who was abducted as a child and raised in captivity by a giant monster. Covered in deep physical scars from having his bone marrow drained, he escapes to human civilization only to find himself exploited in brutal gladiatorial fights due to his strange, unconscious physical transformations.

A ruthless opportunist who takes the youth in after his escape from the mountain cave. He feeds and clothes the youth strictly to prepare him for brutal animal fights, forcing him to "earn his keep" in village arenas.

A blind woman who lives in a secluded forest hut. She carries deep personal guilt regarding the dark legends of her village, recognizing the youth as the victim of a terrible sacrifice made on her behalf.

A working-class woman who trades her fully paid apartment to become the landlord of a mixed-use building. Striving for upward mobility and financial stability, she faces overwhelming stress from demanding tenants, neighborhood disputes, and her husband's poor financial choices. She eventually finds her only solace in the building's shadowy basement.

The spouse of the young woman. He possesses little financial savvy, constantly pursuing abstract "alternative lifestyles" while relying on his wife's hard work to support his whims. His secretive decisions place immense strain on their property investment and their marriage.

A young woman who harbors aspirations shaped by her kingdom's political needs. Betrothed to the prince of the desert kingdom, she learns of a long-standing curse that afflicts the royal bloodline with blindness. Seeking to ensure a better future and protect her future children, she undertakes a difficult journey into the harsh desert to locate a legendary sorcerer and demand an end to the magic.

The son of the desert king, who is born with blindness due to a longstanding curse placed upon his family. He presents himself to the princess with apparent vulnerability, weeping at her beauty and explaining the terrible magic that will affect all their future children.

The ruler of the desert kingdom. His historical greed for gold and past conflicts with the master of the golden flying ship brought a dark curse upon his descendants. He views political marriages as tools to strengthen his domain.

Also known as the sorcerer, he is the master of the Ship of Time and Winds. He lost his left arm in a duel with the desert king and is blamed for the curse of blindness afflicting the royal family. He possesses deep, cynical knowledge about the true nature of human greed.

A Korean scholar who travels to Poland for graduate research on World War II. She possesses the rare ability to see ghosts, a trait that isolates her but allows her to form a profound and unconventional bond with a local man who shares her sight.

A university librarian in Poland who can see the dead. He carries deep emotional scars from his traumatic upbringing and his grandfather's survival of the Holocaust. His anxieties manifest in highly specific requests during intimacy, seeking physical constraints as a way to feel safe and permitted to live.

He is a straightforward man with simple career aspirations who marries the protagonist within six months of meeting her. He retreats into his executive work as he ages, maintaining a passionless dynamic with his wife and largely ignoring the strange entity in their bathroom.

The child of the protagonist and her husband. She grows up alongside the strange occurrences in the family home. Unlike her mother, she exhibits a degree of pity for the bizarre entity in the bathroom.

A medical professional who oversees Kim Young-lan's condition. She insists as a matter of medical certainty that the fetus will not develop properly without a father present, pushing her patient into a desperate public search for a partner.

A working-class man who attends a blind date with Kim Young-lan. He shows little interest in her academic pursuits and asks for time to think when she abruptly asks him to father her child.

Suh Woochang is the 82-year-old head of the Woochang Group conglomerate. Lacking a male heir to succeed him as the owner of his company, he approaches the pregnant Young-lan with a cold, transactional proposition regarding her child.

An opportunistic stranger who responds to the family's newspaper advertisement seeking a father. He falsely claims to be the father of Young-lan's child and demands a large sum of cash.

A humble and kind man who inherits a regional distillery. He works hard to innovate and comply with government stipulations but lacks the political connections necessary to survive against aggressive corporate monopolies.

A colleague of Teacher Lee who suffered a painful divorce after less than a year of marriage. Her husband's scandalous infidelity ruined her life, and her story serves as a grim focal point during Teacher Lee's struggle to escape the sinking car.

A mysterious animal that possesses human-like consciousness and bleeds literal gold. Despite begging for its freedom in a recognizable voice, it is taken captive by the trader, setting a dark precedent for the trader's household.

The mother of the trader's twin children. She is initially unaware of the dark source of her husband's wealth. She grows increasingly concerned and alarmed by her husband's secretive behavior and the distress of her children.

Also known as model S12878, he is a new, highly functional artificial companion. He represents the latest advancements in android synchronization and easily assimilates the narrator's favorite songs and domestic preferences.

An older artificial companion model owned by the narrator. He functions alongside the other androids in the home and forms part of the technological ecosystem the narrator has built for herself.

A man who acts as the primary caretaker for his blind sister. He views the scarred youth with extreme suspicion and hostility, believing him to be an agent of the mountain monster sent to claim his sister.

A massive, monstrous creature that inhabits a mountain cave. It sustains the youth's life only to periodically drop him in an icy lake and suck the bone marrow from his back, creating deep physical and psychological scars.

A mysterious girl who haunts the basement of the young woman's newly purchased building. She refuses to step outside the property and spends her time playing with discarded costumes and locked puzzle boxes, providing the young woman with a strange escape from her worldly stresses.

A college friend of the young woman's husband. He sets up a business in the couple's building without hiring any employees, leaving behind crates of unsold drinks when he abruptly vanishes.

Aggressive tenants who rent a space in the young woman's building to run a restaurant. They attempt to extort money from the couple by utilizing a hired enforcer to intimidate them.

A Holocaust survivor who was forced to work in a Nazi munitions factory. His intense paranoia, strict rules for survival, and inability to escape the past deeply shaped his grandson's turbulent upbringing.

A woman who reacts with terror when she discovers her son's ability to see ghosts. Viewing his sight as a demonic sign, she attempts to abuse and starve the abilities out of him, eventually becoming catatonic following a supernatural encounter of her own.

The estranged father of the Polish man. Unlike the rigid motivations of the grandfather and the fearful abuse of the mother, his motivations remain obscure and disconnected from his son's life.