Ge Weilong is a young, educated woman who stays in Hong Kong when her family returns to Shanghai. Described as having blandly pretty, old-fashioned features and pale skin, she initially intends to pursue her education but soon becomes absorbed in her aunt's luxurious, materially focused lifestyle. She eventually accepts expensive gifts and acts as a consort to support her material desires.

Madame Liang is the wealthy, estranged aunt of Ge Weilong and the former concubine of a Hong Kong businessman, Liang Liteng. She lives a luxurious life in a house that blends traditional and modern aesthetics, supporting herself by entertaining rich men. She acts as a patron to Weilong, using her niece to secure more wealth.

George Qiao is a charming, unreliable playboy who spends his time at parties and social gatherings in Hong Kong. He lacks his own money and relies on his charm to maneuver through the social circles of wealthy women, including Madame Liang, her housemaids, and eventually Ge Weilong.

Nie Chuanqing is a 20-year-old student living in a dilapidated mansion in Hong Kong. He possesses a feminine kind of beauty but suffers from low self-esteem and isolation due to his abusive, opium-addicted father and stepmother. His difficult home life makes him a loner at school until he catches the attention of a popular classmate.

Yan Danzhu is the pretty, intelligent, and popular daughter of a university professor. She frequently rejects the romantic advances of her male classmates to focus on her studies. She goes out of her way to befriend the isolated Chuanqing because she finds him unthreatening.

Bai Liusu is a 28-year-old divorced woman living with her conservative family in Shanghai. Having utilized modern civil codes to end a bad marriage in her early twenties, she receives disdain from her relatives, who view her as a financial burden. She decides to travel to Hong Kong to pursue a marriage of love and financial security.

Fan Liuyuan is a wealthy businessman and reputed playboy with modern sensibilities. He initially meets the Bai family as a prospective match for Baolu but quickly fixes his attention on Liusu, attracted to her combination of modern divorcee status and traditional Chinese grace.

Ts'ao Ch'i-ch'iao comes from a lower-middle-class family that owns a sesame oil factory. She marries into the wealthy Chiang family to care for their chronically ill second son. Miserable and constrained by familial duties, she becomes deeply paranoid, volatile, and controlling, seeking to maintain power over her wealth and her children.

Wu Cuiyuan is a serious, studious young English teacher at a college in Shanghai. Looking like a timid, young Christian wife, she comes from a modern family that sent her to university but still pressures her to marry a wealthy man. She lacks romantic experience and harbors idealistic views about love.

Lu Zongzhen is a middle-aged accountant for Huamao Bank in Shanghai. Unhappy in his marriage, he is a somewhat flighty and flawed man who strikes up a conversation with Cuiyuan purely to avoid a family acquaintance, but quickly propositions her to become his concubine.

Tong Zhenbao is a middle manager at a textile company in Shanghai. Having worked his way up from poverty, he presents the image of a perfectly controlled, respectable man. However, he privately struggles with his desires, sleeping with modern women while insisting on marrying a traditional, submissive wife.

Wang Jiaorui is the modern, ethnically Chinese wife of Zhenbao's classmate, raised in Singapore. Known for being sexually open, she struggles with Mandarin and flouts traditional housewife expectations. She develops a passionate, risky connection with Zhenbao while her husband is away.

Meng Yanli is Zhenbao's traditional, quiet, and old-fashioned wife. Selected by Zhenbao's mother for her propriety, she is deeply isolated in her marriage, struggles with Mandarin, and spends her time listening to the radio. She venerates her husband but bears the brunt of his growing anger and dissatisfaction.

Glint is a housemaid working for Madame Liang in Hong Kong. She understands the reality of her employer's lifestyle and warns Weilong about the dangers of associating with George Qiao, even as she herself harbors a secret connection with him.

Situ Xie is a wealthy businessman who associates with Madame Liang in Hong Kong. His immense wealth allows him to purchase extravagant gifts, bringing both Madame Liang and Ge Weilong further under his influence.

Yan Ziye is a modern, educated professor who teaches the history of Chinese literature. He is strict with his students, particularly Chuanqing, and holds modern views on education, allowing his daughter to attend his classes.

Nie Jiechen is Chuanqing's wealthy but dissolute father. He has an opium addiction and wears grease-spotted satin clothes that reflect his careless, gluttonous lifestyle. He regularly directs verbal and physical hostility toward his son.

Feng Biluo is the deceased mother of Nie Chuanqing. In her youth, she participated in modern exam preparations but ultimately chose a traditional marriage to a wealthy man over a life with the educated Professor Yan.

Mrs. Xu is a matchmaker operating in Shanghai and Hong Kong. She attempts to organize engagements for the conservative Bai family, ultimately proposing that Liusu accompany her to Hong Kong to find a better marital prospect.

Old Mrs. Bai is the matriarch of the conservative Bai family in Shanghai. She holds traditional views on a woman's place and prioritizes the family's financial stability over her daughter's happiness.

Baolu is the seventh sister in the Bai family, born to a concubine. She lacks the modern skills of her older sister Liusu, leading to disappointment during her arranged meeting with a prospective suitor.

Saheiyini is an exiled Indian princess living in Hong Kong. She dresses in the latest Parisian fashions and is highly comfortable with the attention of men, drawing Fan Liuyuan's interest.

Second Master Chiang is the second son of the wealthy Chiang family. He suffers from a severe disability, which prompted his family to arrange his marriage to a woman from a lower social class who could care for him.

Chiang Chi-tse is the third son of the Chiang family, known as a glutton and a playboy. He frequently spends time outside the home visiting sex workers and ignores his new wife. He harbors a long-standing attraction to his sister-in-law, Ch'i-ch'iao.

Ch'ang-an is the daughter of Ch'i-ch'iao and Second Master Chiang. Subjected to her mother's extreme control, she becomes increasingly isolated. She drops out of school to avoid her mother's public outbursts and faces intense pressure regarding her habits and social life.

Ch'ang-pai is the son of Ch'i-ch'iao and Second Master Chiang. He quickly falls under his uncle's bad influence and spends time at sex work establishments. His mother actively manages his domestic life, gossiping about his first wife and eventually arranging a concubine to keep him at home.

Chih-shou is the first wife of Ch'ang-pai. She suffers immensely under the cruel gossip and interference of her mother-in-law, falling into deep depression as her husband spends his evenings complaining about her.

T'ung Shih-fang is a prospective suitor for Ch'ang-an. He forms a genuine connection with her and wishes to become engaged, but he is ultimately driven away by the erratic and hostile behavior of her mother.

Lan-hsien is the Third Mistress of the Chiang family and the new wife of Chiang Chi-tse. She quickly realizes the dysfunction of the household when her husband aggressively massages her shoulders while receiving insults from Ch'i-ch'iao.

Dong Peizhi is the son of Lu Zongzhen's wife's cousin. He has his eye on Zongzhen's young daughter, causing Zongzhen to dislike him and actively avoid him in public.

Tong Dubao is Zhenbao's brother. He moves to Shanghai hoping to secure a job at the textile company through his brother's influence and observes Zhenbao's complicated domestic situations firsthand.

Wang Shihong is Zhenbao's former classmate who kindly hosts Zhenbao and his brother in his home. He leaves for a business trip to Singapore, inadvertently providing the opportunity for his wife and Zhenbao to connect.

Rose is a carefree, half-Chinese, half-British woman who lives in Edinburgh. She embodies modern, liberated sensibilities, speaking her mind and going out dancing with Zhenbao, who views her as unsuitable for a traditional marriage.

Timmy Sun is a former tenant in the Wang apartment. He maintains a flirtatious relationship with Jiaorui and is actively deterred by Mr. Wang, and later by Zhenbao.