Fuwaad is a purveyor of fine fabrics living in Baghdad. Burdened by grief and guilt over the loss of his wife Najya, he maintains a guarded exterior while striving to live an upright life as atonement. His journey begins when he discovers a unique shop containing a device that allows passage into different times, prompting him to consider the nature of his past mistakes.

An inquisitive mechanical being composed of complex air tubules and gears, powered by refillable lungs. Acting as a student of anatomy, the narrator becomes fascinated by recent anomalies in the public turret clocks. Driven by scientific curiosity, it devises a highly unorthodox self-dissection experiment to understand the mechanics of memory and consciousness.

The Journalist lives in a near-future society where people constantly record their lives via wearable cameras called lifelogs. He writes an article critiquing a new memory-retrieval software named Remem, believing that people need to forget minor offenses in order to forgive. He carries lingering resentment over an argument with his daughter.

Jijingi is a young man from the Shangev tribe in Tivland. Introduced to written language by a missionary, he becomes fascinated by the ability of writing to organize and preserve thoughts. He later serves as his tribe's official scribe, balancing his new skills with his culture's rich oral traditions.

Ana is a former zookeeper with a newly acquired software testing degree. She brings her nurturing instincts to her new role, where she helps train artificial digital organisms called digients. Treating the digients with the same patience and respect as biological animals, she forms a profound attachment to a digient named Jax.

Jax is an advanced digient raised primarily by Ana. Beginning with childlike English and basic curiosity, he develops complex emotions, preferences, and a deep bond with Ana over several decades. He relies on her to navigate the increasingly hostile and incompatible digital landscapes of his world.

Derek is an animator and character designer who works alongside Ana. He finds great professional fulfillment in helping new artificial lifeforms express themselves. Outside of work, he devotes massive amounts of time to raising his own digients, Marco and Polo, an obsession that strains his marriage.

Dorothea is an archaeologist and a devout believer in God who studies tree rings and ancient relics to find proof of divine creation. She operates in a society where science is explicitly used to confirm creationism. Despite living in a heavily conservative, male-dominated culture, she passionately pursues her academic career.

Nat is a recovering drug addict currently employed at a company that trades and rents prisms—devices that allow communication with parallel timelines. To save money for a fresh start, she frequently assists her manager in extortionary deals. She attends a prism support group under false pretenses to secure a highly valuable device.

Morrow is the manager of SelfTalk and Nat's direct superior. An opportunistic and highly manipulative businessman, he runs several illegal side operations involving the theft and extortion of prism users. He actively seeks out vulnerable targets, demonstrating zero remorse for his actions.

Dana is a calm, professional therapist who guides a support group for people obsessed with their alternate-timeline paraselves. Though she attempts to help others overcome their jealousy and self-doubt, she secretly carries massive guilt over a traumatic high school incident involving her friend Vinessa.

Bashaarat is the knowledgeable and mysterious owner of a new shop in Baghdad's metalsmith district. He possesses devices of incredible design, including a Gate of Seconds and a Gate of Years. He serves as a guide, sharing three stories of previous time travelers to help Fuwaad understand the rules of the gate.

Najya is Fuwaad's wife. Twenty years prior to the story's present, she argued with Fuwaad over his potential participation in the slave trade before he left on a business trip. Her memory deeply influences Fuwaad's current life choices.

Hassan begins as a humble rope-maker in Cairo who crosses paths with an older, much wealthier version of himself. He receives cryptic but lifesaving advice from his older self, which he follows closely. He appreciates the mystery of the future and values the opportunity to act mercifully.

Raniya is Hassan's wife. She takes an active, secretive role in protecting her husband's past. Utilizing the Gate of Years, she travels back in time to intervene in a dangerous situation involving stolen treasure, demonstrating sharp wit and courage in a male-dominated society.

Ajib is a modest weaver of rugs who seeks out his older self, hoping to find wealth. Discovering that his older self lives frugally despite possessing a chest of gold, Ajib decides to steal the money for himself. He spends the stolen funds lavishly to impress a woman.

Taahira is a woman desired by Ajib, who agrees to marry him after he presents himself as a wealthy man. She becomes furious when she learns the true source of his funds and demands that he make amends, forcing the couple into a life of strict frugality.

Nicole is the adult daughter of The Journalist. She had a severe argument with her father years ago regarding her mother's departure. Her relationship with her father gradually improves after she starts attending therapy, though her father attributes the improvement to the passage of time.

Angela is The Journalist's wife and Nicole's mother. Her departure creates a massive rift in the family, serving as the catalyst for the central argument between her husband and daughter.

Erica is a representative for Whetstone, the company behind the Remem software. She argues that perfectly accurate digital memory will help people become more forgiving, countering The Journalist's skeptical perspective.

Moseby is a European missionary who introduces the concept of writing to the Shangev tribe. He spends significant time teaching Jijingi how to read and write, fundamentally altering the way the young man processes information.

Sabe is the leader of Jijingi's tribe. He is wary of the Europeans and their use of written documentation as a tool of control. He relies on Jijingi to record civil disputes and navigate political alignments with neighboring tribes.

Wendy is Derek's wife. She feels increasingly alienated by her husband's intense dedication to raising his digients, leading to significant marital strife and eventual divorce.

Marco is a panda-like digient adopted by Derek. As he matures, he begins to express a desire for independence and corporate incorporation, pushing the boundaries of his digital existence.

Polo is another panda-like digient adopted by Derek after the failure of Blue Gamma. He learns and grows in tandem with Marco under Derek's careful supervision.

Kyle is Ana's boyfriend. He is unenthusiastic about the massive amount of time, energy, and money Ana dedicates to keeping Jax online and safe.

Robyn is Ana's friend who works at Blue Gamma and actively recruits Ana, believing her background in animal care makes her perfect for training digients.

Felix is an isolated hobbyist who participated in an alien-design project Derek animated. He connects Derek to a controversial company willing to fund the digients' server transition.

Jennifer represents Binary Desire, a company that designs virtual companions. She offers to fund the digients' transition to a new server in exchange for allowing her company to alter them for commercial purposes.

Reginald is a brilliant but rigid mathematician who relies heavily on the strict Victorian standards of childrearing. Distrustful of human nannies, he designs an Automatic Nanny to raise children purely on rationality, a project that ends in commercial failure.

Lionel is Reginald's son, raised to revere mathematics and rationality. Determined to clear his father's name, he adopts a child specifically to prove that the Automatic Nanny is an effective caregiver, resulting in tragic developmental consequences for the boy.

Edmund is Lionel's illegitimate son, raised exclusively by a machine for the first two years of his life. After the machine is removed, he becomes entirely unresponsive to human contact, prompting his institutionalization.

A dedicated doctor who takes an interest in Edmund's unusual condition. He discovers that Edmund requires mechanical intermediaries to develop properly and seeks out Lionel to procure the necessary equipment.

A human nanny hired by Reginald Dacey shortly after his wife's death. Her cruelty toward the infant Lionel drives Reginald to invent the Automatic Nanny.

Rosemary is Dorothea's cousin. She is one of the few family members who fully supports Dorothea's scientific career without pressuring her to marry.

Alfred is Rosemary's husband. He shares an interest in religious relics and frequently purchases items that confirm the world's divine creation.

Wilhelmina is the daughter of a museum director. She actively donates primordial abalone shells to a museum gift shop, pricing them cheaply so everyday people can afford them and feel closer to God.

Nathan is the director of a museum of natural philosophy. Reeling from the loss of a child, his faith is severely shaken when he reads a pre-published astronomy paper that questions humanity's central place in the universe.

Lyle is a man tormented by the knowledge that a parallel version of himself made a better career choice and is consequently much happier. He becomes the target of Nat and Morrow's scheme due to the rare and valuable nature of his specific prism timeline.

Jessica is an elderly, dying woman who comes to SelfTalk hoping to send money to a parallel version of herself. Morrow tricks her into giving him her funds, fully aware that such a transaction is technologically impossible.

Glenn is Jessica's son. Upon discovering that Morrow stole money from his dying mother, he confronts the manager at the store.

Vinessa is Dana's childhood friend. Following a high school incident where Dana blamed her for possessing drugs, Vinessa fell into a cycle of bad habits. In the present, she actively uses Dana's lingering guilt to extract money from her.

Scott is a famous pop singer grieving the death of his husband in a car accident. Because Lyle's prism connects to a timeline where Scott died instead of his husband, Scott is willing to pay an astronomical sum to speak with the living version of his partner.

Roderick is a movie star who died in a car accident in the primary timeline. In Lyle's alternate timeline, he survived the crash while Scott perished.

Ornella is Scott Otsuka's personal assistant. She acts as a proxy for the grieving celebrity, handling the logistics of purchasing Lyle's prism and observing Nat's conflicted demeanor.

Alex is a real-life African gray parrot studied for thirty years to demonstrate avian cognitive abilities. He serves as a tragic historical example for the narrator, highlighting the intelligence of a species that is rapidly disappearing.

A human scientist who spent thirty years working with Alex the parrot, proving that his species is capable of understanding complex concepts like shape and color.