The speaker is a bilingual seventeen-year-old attending a family wedding in the Dominican Republic after living in Vermont. Their education in the United States, funded by their family's sugar cane fields, causes them to view the celebration with a growing awareness of class divides and labor exploitation. They occupy a space between two cultures, processing their upper-class family's expectations while recognizing the invisible labor of the ranch workers.

Tio is the speaker's uncle and the patriarchal owner of the family's sugar cane ranch. He focuses heavily on impressing his daughter's new in-laws through elaborate planning and displays of wealth, such as hiring guards for jewelry and cleaning the river. Intoxicated on rum during the reception, he dances closely with the speaker while bragging about their family's ownership of the land and its workers.

Carmen is Tio's only daughter and the bride at the center of the lavish ranch celebration. Her marriage to a white American man brings a group of Midwesterners to the Caribbean, creating a cultural mixing point for the two families. The event designed around her features a massive cake made to look exactly like the family ranch.

Dick is Carmen's groom, an American from Minnesota. He and his family bring a noticeably different cultural background to the wedding, performing the Charleston on the dance floor and earning the approval of the local guests who view them as good-hearted outsiders.

The groom's younger sister is a Minnesotan girl attending the wedding. She has blonde hair and freckles, features that attract curiosity from the working-class maids at the ranch. She initially retreats from their attention before realizing they mean no harm.

The maiden aunt is an unmarried relative tasked with maintaining the intricate wedding cake, which is a miniature duplicate of the family ranch. She acts as a caretaker for the dessert, diligently using a syringe of egg whites to repair melting marzipan and whipped cream decorations as the temperature rises.

The grandmother is an elder family member attending the reception. She watches the decorative Chinese lanterns strung around the party and remarks on the rapid passage of time when one of the lights breaks free and floats upward.