Reese is a transgender woman in her mid-thirties living in Brooklyn. Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, she currently works in public relations and previously supported herself as a waitress and a nanny. Following a painful breakup, she falls into a pattern of engaging in high-risk affairs with married men to affirm her attractiveness. Despite her chaotic romantic life, she possesses a deep, unfulfilled desire to be a mother and actively mentors younger trans women in her community.

Ames is a thirty-something cisgender man working at an advertising agency. He previously lived as a trans woman named Amy but detransitioned following a traumatic physical assault and a painful breakup. He feels immense ambivalence about traditional expectations of fatherhood and proposes a three-parent family structure to ease his anxiety. He approaches emotional issues by analyzing logistics and planning.

Katrina is an executive at an advertising agency reeling from a recent divorce and a miscarriage. Her previous marriage left her highly cynical about heterosexual domesticity. When she becomes pregnant after an affair with her employee, she initially views alternative family structures as a solution to the inequalities she faced in her past. She is pragmatic and direct but lacks experience with queer social dynamics.

Stanley is a financially comfortable married man who meets Reese on a fetish website. He is going through a separation from his wife and quickly moves Reese into his apartment. He uses his money to assert dominance and control, treating romantic relationships as aggressive power struggles.

The cowboy is a married man engaging in an extramarital affair with Reese. He contracts HIV from a previous affair but maintains an undetectable viral load. He cultivates a ruggedly masculine aesthetic that earns him his nickname.

Thalia is a young transgender woman and performer living in New York. She looks to older members of her community for guidance and views her older friends as informal maternal figures.

Iris is Reese's roommate and an active participant in the local trans community. She provides social support and uses humor to observe the unfolding drama of her friends' lives.

Maya is Katrina's mother. She takes a highly practical view of parenting, advising her daughter that raising a child is easiest when there are multiple maternal figures involved.

Diana is one of Katrina's close friends from her traditional social circle. She harbors deep anxiety about queer individuals due to her own husband's history of infidelity.

Jon is a friend of Ames from their college years. He maintains a consistent presence through Ames's transition and detransition, offering a reliable sounding board for complex emotional decisions.

Sebastian is a Norwegian college swimmer who dates Reese during her early twenties. He convinces her to relocate to New York before abruptly ending their relationship and leaving the country.

Tammi is a transgender woman whose death by suicide brings the local community together. Her funeral serves as a grim reminder of the high mortality rate within their social circles.

Danny is Katrina's ex-husband. Their time together left Katrina feeling constrained by the expectations of traditional domesticity.

Delia is a seventeen-year-old high school student who becomes Amy's first sexual partner. She is unaware of Amy's internal conflicts regarding gender during their time together.

Patrick is an older, married man going through a divorce who connects with Amy online during her college years. He takes her shopping for lingerie but harbors intense anxiety about being discovered by his family.