Leon is a former US Marine who deserted the military during the Vietnam War and sought asylum in Sweden, where he worked as a shipbuilder. Following a fatal accident during the construction of the Bahia de Darwin, he becomes a ghost haunting the vessel. From this perspective, he observes the passengers and the unfolding global crises with a detached but intensely invested curiosity. His experiences in the war left him deeply traumatized, shaping his cynical view of humanity's oversized brains.

Mary is a 51-year-old recently widowed former public schoolteacher from Ilium, New York. She travels to Ecuador to take the "Nature Cruise of the Century" primarily because her late husband booked the tickets before his death. Grieving and disoriented by the collapsing global economy, she struggles with severe depression and suicidal ideation while staying at the hotel.

James is a 35-year-old American con artist traveling under a false identity. He built a fortune by finding lonely women, marrying them, and stealing their life savings. Having survived a highly abusive childhood, he operates as a predator entirely focused on finding his next target among the wealthy guests stuck at the Ecuadorian hotel.

Adolf is the handsome, wealthy captain of the Bahia de Darwin cruise ship. Despite his title and his minor celebrity status on American talk shows, he knows virtually nothing about navigation or running a vessel, functioning primarily as a charming host for the rich passengers. He secretly relies entirely on his crew to manage the ship's practical operations.

Hisako is a Japanese teacher of ikebana (flower arranging) traveling in Ecuador with her husband. She is pregnant and carries the lingering effects of radiation poisoning from the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. She feels isolated and undermined by her husband's technological inventions, which can replicate her highly specialized skills.

Zenji is a 29-year-old Japanese computer genius and the inventor of the Mandarax, a highly advanced pocket computer capable of diagnosing diseases and translating thousands of languages. He is in Ecuador under a false name, trying to manage a stressful business proposition while avoiding the aggressive tactics of a wealthy American investor.

Andrew is a 55-year-old wealthy American adventurer and disaster capitalist. As the global economy crashes and starvation sweeps Ecuador, he views the chaos strictly as a financial opportunity to buy distressed assets. He is an investor in the Bahia de Darwin and uses the trip to corner a Japanese inventor into a lucrative business contract.

Selena is Andrew's 18-year-old daughter. She is blind due to a hereditary condition passed down from her late mother. She travels with her father and relies heavily on her guide dog, Kazakh, for mobility and comfort amid the stressful environment of the collapsing Ecuadorian infrastructure.

Siegfried is the Ecuadorian-born manager of the luxury El Dorado Hotel and the brother of the cruise ship's captain. He struggles to maintain order and protect his few remaining wealthy guests as starving crowds gather outside. He is deeply anxious about a genetic defect he inherited from his father, which he fears will cause him to lose his sanity.

Roy is Mary's late husband. Before dying of a brain tumor, his behavior became erratic, leading him to abruptly book tickets for the Nature Cruise of the Century. His death leaves Mary untethered, and his final request that she take the trip is the only reason she travels to Ecuador.

Bobby is an American businessman and the mastermind behind the "Nature Cruise of the Century." He designed the trip to attract the world's most famous and influential people. As global economies fail and his celebrity guests cancel, he finds himself left with a passenger list of ordinary people he considers entirely unimportant.

Jesus is an educated young Ecuadorian bartender working at the luxury hotel. He initially views the wealthy guests with reverence, dreaming of one day achieving their status. However, as the crisis deepens and the guests display callous indifference to the starving locals, his perspective radically shifts.

Kilgore is Leon's father, an unsuccessful science fiction writer whose erratic behavior drove his wife away. He resides in the afterlife, appearing to Leon as a spirit attempting to coax his son into moving on from the physical world.

Hernando is the first mate of the Bahia de Darwin. Unlike the ceremonial captain, Hernando possesses actual maritime knowledge and is entirely responsible for the practical operations of the ship. The economic collapse forces him to make difficult decisions regarding his loyalty to the vessel versus his family.

Geraldo is a soldier in the Ecuadorian Army tasked with holding back the starving crowds. He suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and experiences intense delusions, which escalate dangerously during the mounting tension outside the hotel.

Kazakh is Selena's trained guide dog. He provides essential navigation assistance to his blind owner in unfamiliar and increasingly chaotic environments.

This group of young girls belongs to an isolated Ecuadorian tribe that most of the world mistakenly believes to be extinct. After surviving a pesticide attack on their home, they end up stranded in Guayaquil. Speaking neither Spanish nor English, they are highly vulnerable and desperate for food.