Bodie is a forty-something film professor at UCLA and the successful cohost of a true-crime Hollywood podcast called Starlet Fever. She returns to her alma mater, the elite New Hampshire boarding school Granby, to teach a short mini-mester course on podcasting. Separated from her husband, she uses the temporary position to process her current marital separation and reexamine the 1995 murder of her high school roommate.

Thalia was a junior-year transfer student at Granby who became Bodie's roommate in the 1990s. Beautiful, popular, and magnetically attractive to the male students on campus, she was found dead in the school's pool after the opening-night performance of the musical Camelot. Her death remains a subject of true crime fascination and online speculation.

Omar was a young, Black athletic trainer working at Granby in the 1990s. He was quickly arrested and convicted of Thalia's murder based on circumstantial evidence, drug allegations, and DNA found on her swimsuit. He maintains his innocence while serving his prison sentence and becomes the focal point of a new podcast investigation initiated by Bodie's students.

Dennis "Denny" Bloch was a charismatic music teacher and theater director at Granby during the 1990s. He directed the ill-fated production of Camelot on the night Thalia died. As an educator, he frequently blurred the lines between teacher and peer, treating his adolescent students like adults and earning their intense admiration before he abruptly left the school following the murder.

Beth was a socially dominant student at Granby and Thalia's best friend. In the 1990s, she actively tormented Bodie and other girls outside her inner circle. She fiercely protects the memory of her friends and holds a deep resentment toward anyone she feels is exploiting Thalia's tragedy for attention.

Mike is a former Granby student who played King Arthur in the school's production of Camelot. A quintessential all-American jock during his school days, he later builds a career in academia focusing on human rights. He remains highly protective of his old friends and expresses anxiety about the renewed interest in the 1995 murder.

Britt is an earnest, motivated current student at Granby taking Bodie's mini-mester course. She decides to use her class project to reexamine the highly circumstantial evidence that put Omar Evans in prison. Her dedication pushes Bodie to confront her own buried memories of the timeline and the people involved.

Alder is a creative and thoughtful current student at Granby who teams up with Britt to investigate Thalia's murder. As a young Black man, he brings a grounded perspective to the project, recognizing the systemic hurdles Omar faces while remaining enthusiastic about their audio journalism.

Robbie was a star skier and a prominent figure at Granby in the 1990s. Though he attended the elite school on a scholarship, he blended seamlessly into the wealthy student body. He possessed a quick temper but was generally well-liked and heavily shielded by his loyal friends after Thalia's death.

Jerome is an artist and Bodie's estranged husband. Though they remain legally married and live next door to each other in Los Angeles to co-parent, their relationship fractures further when a younger artist posts a viral video accusing him of past predatory behavior. He firmly denies the allegations, insisting the relationship was consensual.

Yahav is an Israeli law professor based at UCLA who is temporarily teaching in Boston. He and Bodie maintain an on-again, off-again affair despite both being married to other people. He offers Bodie legal insights regarding Omar's case but maintains an emotionally distant approach to their romance.

Fran is Bodie's pragmatic high school friend who now works at Granby. As the daughter of retired faculty members, she holds deep, institutional loyalty to the school. She is married to Anne and acts as a sounding board for Bodie, though she expresses apprehension about the podcast students digging into Granby's painful past.

Dorian was a privileged Granby student in the 1990s who frequently subjected Bodie to crude, sexually explicit harassment that the school's faculty entirely ignored. His past behavior forces Bodie to process the pervasive culture of unchecked toxicity she endured during her youth.

Dane is an amateur internet sleuth and conspiracy theorist who posts videos attempting to solve Thalia's murder. Though his methods are sensationalist and sometimes reckless, he highlights genuine inconsistencies in the police investigation and questions the official narrative surrounding Omar's guilt.

Geoff is a former Granby student who specialized in creating fake IDs for his classmates. Now an adult, he retains copies of photographs and negatives from the night of Thalia's murder, making him a valuable resource for anyone trying to reconstruct the actual timeline of events.

Jasmine is a young performance artist who briefly dated Jerome fifteen years prior. She creates a public art piece specifically designed to accuse him of grooming and predatory behavior, sparking a massive online backlash that heavily impacts both Jerome and Bodie.

Dr. Calahan served as the head of Granby at the time of Thalia's death. He heavily pressured the police to wrap up the investigation quickly to protect the school's reputation, explicitly directing authorities to focus away from students and faculty.