Esther is a 35-year-old African American seamstress living in a New York boarding house in 1905. She spends her days creating expertly crafted lingerie for a wide variety of clients, from wealthy white socialites to local sex workers. Self-conscious about her plain appearance, she feels she has missed her chance at marriage as she watches younger women leave the boarding house for domestic life. She quietly saves her earnings in the lining of a patchwork quilt, nursing a long-held ambition to open an elegant beauty salon exclusively for Black women.

Mrs. Dickson is a 50-year-old Black woman who owns and operates the boarding house where Esther lives. Having witnessed her parents endure back-breaking physical labor, she secured her financial independence by marrying a man she did not love in order to acquire property. She acts as a surrogate mother to the young women under her roof, functioning as a watchful guardian over their virtue and future prospects.

Mrs. Van Buren is an attractive, wealthy white woman in her early thirties who recently relocated to New York from the South. Trapped in a loveless marriage and unable to conceive a child, she spends her days drinking brandy and trying on extravagant undergarments. Starved for attention, she seeks an unusual personal connection with Esther, inviting her seamstress into her private bedroom and volunteering to act as her scribe.

Mr. Marks is an attractive Romanian Orthodox Jewish man who sells fine fabrics out of his bedroom shop. Bound by strict religious traditions, he wears his father's old dark suit despite missing a button, and he absolutely abstains from touching women outside his family. He maintains a long-standing arranged engagement to a woman in Romania whom he has never met, using his love of colorful textiles as his primary outlet for passion.

Mayme is a beautiful 30-year-old Black woman who works as a prostitute in lower Manhattan. She is a talented musician who plays the piano to drown out the harsh realities of her profession and the rough treatment she receives from male clients. She maintains a blunt, cynical view of romance, believing men only value physical appearance, but she secretly harbors a dream of leaving her life behind to become a concert pianist.

George is an African Caribbean man in his thirties currently working on the dangerous construction of the Panama Canal. After acquiring Esther's name and address from a mutual church acquaintance, he initiates an epistolary courtship. He writes descriptive, poetic letters about the grueling, fatal working conditions in the mud and expresses a strong desire to build a respectable life with someone back in the United States.

Corinna Mae is a young, light-skinned Black woman living at Mrs. Dickson's boarding house. Her impending marriage is the subject of the party in the opening scene, serving as a direct reminder to Esther of her own single status.

Mr. Charles is an older gentleman guest at the boarding house. Mrs. Dickson frequently pushes him toward Esther, viewing him as a practical, financially stable option for a woman of Esther's age, though Esther finds him entirely uninteresting.

Mr. Van Buren is a wealthy white man who married his wife in the South and brought her to New York. Furious over her inability to produce an heir, he openly carries on affairs with other women, dictates her social calendar, and responds to her physical vulnerabilities with overt disgust.