Teroro is a skilled navigator and the younger brother of King Tamatoa. Disgusted by the escalating blood sacrifices demanded by a new deity, he organizes a perilous ocean voyage to find a safe haven for his people. He relies on the stars to pilot a large canoe carrying sixty people, livestock, and plants across the ocean.

Marama is Teroro's intelligent and level-headed wife. Initially left behind because she appears infertile, she proves her capability by organizing a return journey with additional women and children to populate the new settlement. She serves as a crucial seer and advisor for the newly established community in Hawaii.

Abner is a pale, uncompromising Congregationalist minister from Massachusetts. He travels to Hawaii with absolute certainty in Calvinist predestination and a fierce determination to eradicate the islanders' native beliefs. He refuses to adopt lighter clothing or modify his church design for the tropical heat, creating constant friction with the local population and his fellow Americans.

Jerusha is Abner's self-sacrificing wife. Having lost contact with her seafaring suitor, she marries Abner and fully commits to the grueling life of a missionary. She labors endlessly in a dank grass shack to support her family, offering a gentle counterpart to her husband's wrathful theology.

John is a pragmatic medical missionary who increasingly questions the effectiveness of the church's methods. Tired of extreme poverty and the mission's failure to protect the islanders from foreign diseases, he eventually leaves the ministry to establish a highly successful mercantile business.

Rafer is the brash, volatile captain of the whaling ship Carthaginian. Infuriated by the loss of Jerusha, he becomes a dangerous antagonist to Abner and a rebellious force against the strict new laws in Lahaina. He fires cannons at town buildings in protest of curfews and channels his aggressive energy into building a massive shipping line.

Malama is the towering, three-hundred-pound supreme ruler of Maui. She actively seeks to modernize her society by learning to read and enacting new civil decrees. She suffers physical decline from the stress of abandoning her ancestral customs while facing the terrifying Christian theology preached by Abner.

Nyuk Tsin is a resilient Hakka peasant woman characterized by her unbound feet and intense practicality. Transported across the ocean under horrific conditions, she volunteers to relocate to a deadly leper colony as a caretaker and later purchases burned real estate to secure her family's financial future.

Kamejiro is an incredibly tough Japanese laborer who wakes hours before his peers to chop wood for a communal bath. He is fiercely proud of his heritage, stubbornly donating his wages to nationalist causes overseas and resisting assimilation into his new American environment.

Whip is Rafer's rebellious grandson who is exiled to a barren tract by his embarrassed relatives. Defying expectations, he hires an artesian well expert to irrigate the land, successfully cultivating a highly profitable strain of pineapple and revitalizing the local economy.

Hoxworth manages the massive wealth of The Fort, the secretive oligarchy controlling Honolulu's economy. While he longs to preserve the island's isolation, he stands out from his peers by recognizing the need to hire outside talent to maintain their economic dominance.

Hong Kong is Nyuk Tsin's astute grandson and an influential banker. Operating under his grandmother's continuous strategic guidance, he secretly acquires commercial leases on behalf of mainland retail chains and partners with political upstarts.

Shigeo is a distinguished military veteran who translates for American forces in post-war Japan before earning a Harvard law degree. He returns to his home islands determined to organize labor unions and break the political monopoly held by the descendants of the early white settlers.

Kelly is a direct descendant of the original Hawaiian royalty who initially leads an aimless life catering to wealthy mainland vacationers. Possessing high intelligence and significant musical talent, he perfectly embodies the cultural blending of the modern islander.

Tamatoa is the King of Bora Bora and Teroro's older brother. Sickened by the constant blood sacrifice demanded by the High Priest, he decides to flee the island with a small party. He directs the planning for the new settlement upon their arrival in Hawaii.

Janders is the experienced sailor tasked with ferrying the first wave of Congregationalist missionaries around the treacherous southern tip of South America. He frequently clashes with his religious passengers before deciding to leave the sea and open a mercantile store in Honolulu.

Kelolo is a powerful indigenous chief who honors the bloodline traditions of his people. While he establishes a local police force to enforce new laws, he flatly refuses to abandon his veneration for the volcano goddess Pele, secretly preserving the sacred stones.

Keoki is the idealistic son of the supreme ruler. He travels to Massachusetts to request religious instruction for his people, studying diligently in hopes of becoming an ordained minister, only to face severe racial prejudice from the white institution.

Noelani is the daughter of the ruling family who inherits the title of supreme leader. She steps into the leadership role after her mother falls ill, initially attempting to sustain the old religious order before recognizing that her society is permanently altered.

Micah is the highly intelligent eldest son of Abner and Jerusha. Groomed to take over his father's ministry, he applies his education to commerce rather than theology, creating a business empire in partnership with his father's bitterest enemy.

David is one of Abner and Jerusha's sons. He refuses to become a minister, choosing his own path and contributing to his father's profound sense of estrangement from the younger generation.

Lucy is Abner and Jerusha's daughter. She marries young Hewlett, a union that displeases her father due to the Hewlett family's integration with the native Hawaiian population.

Esther is Abner's youngest child. She marries into the Whipple family, further alienating her father who deeply resents Dr. Whipple's mockery of the missionary effort.

Mun Ki is an ambitious Punti man who leverages an opportunity to travel to Hawaii as a cook. He adheres strictly to his home village's social protocols, maintaining loyalty to an official wife in China while relying entirely on Nyuk Tsin when he contracts a severe illness.

Africa is one of Nyuk Tsin's sons. Demonstrating high intelligence, he is sent to Michigan for a university education to become a lawyer, fulfilling his mother's ambitions for her family's social advancement.

Yoriko is a plain-looking farm girl who takes the place of another bride at the last minute to marry Kamejiro. She works alongside her husband in the fields and raises a large family amid difficult plantation conditions.

Goro is Shigeo's brother and a primary organizer for the local agricultural workers. He leads the first major strike at Malama Sugar, effectively halting the Hawaiian economy and forcing the powerful planters to negotiate.

Reiko is Kamejiro's brightest child, denied a university education strictly because of her gender. She strikes up an ill-fated romance with a white military officer before accepting an arranged marriage setup by her traditional father.

Judy is the daughter of Hong Kong Kee. She defies the expectations of the Chinese community by forming a musical duo with a Hawaiian beach boy, eventually establishing an independent record label.

Mr. Ishii is an older friend of Kamejiro who spreads misinformation regarding Japanese military victories during the war. He later participates in an arranged marriage with Kamejiro's daughter.

McLafferty is an Irish businessman representing mainland store chains. He introduces outside retail competition to the islands and establishes a law practice with Shigeo.

Big Saul is the brutal, disfigured leader who enforces his own law on the isolated island of Molokai. He frequently abuses the female inhabitants until encountering violent resistance from the new arrivals.

Kimo is a generous Hawaiian man who, alongside Apikela, takes in the Kee children when their parents are forced into exile due to illness.

Apikela is a Hawaiian woman who promises to raise the young Kee children, allowing their mother to accompany her husband to the leper colony.

Overpeck is an artesian well expert who possesses the technical knowledge required to bring fresh water to the barren acreage owned by the Hoxworth family.

Bromley is the son of Hoxworth Hale. He writes a satirical essay analyzing the impossible logistics of the original missionaries' shipboard pregnancies, causing severe embarrassment to his elite family.

Chun Fat is an enterprising Punti man who acts as a labor broker, negotiating the transfer of hundreds of workers from feuding Chinese villages to the plantations in Hawaii.