Gilda is a 27-year-old lesbian atheist who experiences severe anxiety, depression, and a fixation on mortality that began in childhood. After losing her bookstore job and struggling with financial instability, she accidentally secures a position as a secretary at Saint Rigobert’s Catholic church while seeking free mental health support. To keep the job and pay her bills, she adopts a draining public persona as a heterosexual Catholic woman.

Jeff is the calm and collected priest of Saint Rigobert’s Catholic church. He maintains a pristine, inviting home and generally projects a warm demeanor toward his congregation. He deeply grieves the sudden loss of his long-time friend and former secretary, Grace, keeping her ring as a memento of their lifelong connection.

Elijah, frequently called Eli, is Gilda’s sibling who struggles significantly with his mental health. He self-medicates with alcohol and painkillers, frequently stealing money from his family to fund his habits. Because their parents refuse to acknowledge psychological struggles, Eli lacks the tools to express his feelings healthily and relies on Gilda for intermittent support.

Eleanor is Gilda’s girlfriend of a few months. She is attentive and deeply cares about Gilda's well-being, taking the time to notice small details about her life and offering thoughtful gestures like bringing her favorite cookies. She finds herself increasingly shut out as Gilda's mental health declines and her secret life at the church takes over.

Rosemary is an older woman who focuses heavily on her family and her faith. Recently widowed after 52 years of marriage, she maintains a long-distance correspondence with her friend Grace. She unknowingly exchanges emails with Gilda, who poses as Grace to spare the older woman from further grief.

Grace Moppet is the former secretary of Saint Rigobert’s Catholic church. Her sudden and suspicious death precedes Gilda's arrival, creating the job opening that Gilda fills. She leaves behind an unfinished romance novel and a computer full of email correspondence that pulls Gilda into a web of impersonation.

Giuseppe is a conventionally attractive bachelor who owns his own business and attends Saint Rigobert’s. He pursues Gilda romantically, completely oblivious to her visible discomfort, while Gilda forces herself to tolerate his advances out of fear that rejecting him will expose her sexual orientation to the church.

Barney is an older member of the Saint Rigobert's congregation whose home life has fallen into extreme disarray following the death of his wife. He is highly vocal about his biases and becomes intensely fixated on the circumstances surrounding Grace's death, frequently hounding the police with his personal theories.

Ingrid is Gilda’s childhood friend. Though the two women have grown somewhat distant over the years as their lives have diverged, they maintain a steadfast annual tradition of gifting each other stuffed animals on their respective birthdays.

Mittens is a local cat who goes missing after the house across the street from Gilda burns down. The lost pet becomes an object of intense focus for Gilda, representing her broader anxieties about survival, vulnerability, and mortality as she spends her evenings desperately searching the neighborhood.