Alma is a 74-year-old white woman living in a wealthy suburb of post-apartheid Cape Town. She suffers from advanced dementia and relies on specialized, expensive technology to extract and replay her fading memories. Her physical environment reflects her wealth, isolating her from the poverty of the surrounding city while she focuses entirely on preserving fragments of her past.

Imogene is a resource allocation manager in her early thirties living in rural Wyoming. She carries a long-standing fear of loss following the death of her parents in a car crash when she was 21. Faced with an infertility diagnosis, she undergoes expensive and physically demanding in vitro fertilization treatments, often retreating emotionally from her husband to protect herself from further heartbreak.

Herb teaches molecular phylogeny to undergraduate biology students. He approaches life and fatherhood from a biological and scientific perspective but finds himself entirely unprepared for the emotional devastation of a male infertility diagnosis. When his wife withdraws from him during their medical treatments, he struggles with feelings of inadequacy and seeks external validation.

Davis is a father and husband managing the collapse of his household during the Korean War era. With his son deployed overseas and his wife having recently moved out to live with another man, Davis assumes the role of primary caretaker for his aging father. He clings to holiday traditions to maintain a sense of order and structure.

The seed keeper is an older resident of a rural Chinese village that is slated for destruction to make way for a hydroelectric dam. While other residents gladly pack for modern resettlement districts, she secretly catalogs the botanical history of her home. She keeps her true feelings hidden, especially from her son, who works for the government orchestrating the move.

Allison is a 15-year-old orphan who relocates to Lithuania to live with her grandfather. Consumed by a profound grief she calls the "Big Sadness," she attempts to connect with her deceased mother by fishing the local river. She stubbornly searches for a massive sturgeon her mother once caught, ignoring her grandfather's insistence that the fish are gone.

Esther is the sole survivor of a Jewish girls' orphanage in Hamburg, Germany. Throughout her life, she has experienced temporal lobe epilepsy, which triggers intense seizures accompanied by visions of her deceased childhood friends. Now an elderly woman nearing the end of her life, she uses her artistic skills to sketch the overlapping worlds she perceives.

Pheko is a diligent caretaker who has worked for the Konachek family for fifteen years. He commutes daily from Khayelitsha, a poverty-stricken neighborhood composed of cinder block shanties. He relies entirely on his wages from Alma to feed his young son and afford medical care during a local outbreak of infectious disease.

Roger is a desperate con artist operating in Cape Town. Driven by severe debts, he breaks into Alma's house to steal a specific memory cartridge containing the location of a priceless fossil. He exploits a teenage memory tapper to sift through the elderly woman's mind.

Luvo is a 15-year-old boy working as an illegal memory tapper. Due to crude ports installed in his skull, he suffers from chronic pain and lacks any memories of his own life prior to a few months ago. He views Alma's memories with deep empathy, temporarily adopting her feelings and literary interests.

Davis's son is a young soldier deployed in the Korean War. He writes detailed letters to his father describing his bout with intestinal parasites and his observations of the local wildlife. He remains completely unaware that his parents' marriage has dissolved in his absence.

Teacher Ke is the local schoolteacher in Village 113. He stands out from his compliant neighbors by actively opposing the impending destruction of their village. He writes frequent letters to authorities warning of the cultural and historical loss the dam will cause, refusing to accept the relocation quietly.

Li Qing is the 44-year-old son of the seed keeper. Having moved to the city to work for the government, he acts as an enforcer of the dam project. He encourages his mother to accept her resettlement check, representing the modern, bureaucratic forces actively destroying his childhood home.

Grandpa Z is a practical older man living in Lithuania. He accommodates his orphaned granddaughter by giving up his own bedroom but struggles to relate to her intense spiritual beliefs. He firmly insists that the sturgeon she searches for in the local river no longer exist.

Miriam is the oldest girl at The Hirschfeld Trust Girls' Orphanage in Hamburg during the buildup to World War II. She acts as a fierce protector for the younger orphans, especially Esther, moving them to the attic to shield them during bombing raids. She remains a vivid, permanent fixture in Esther's visions decades later.

Harold is Alma's late husband. He is present in the narrative primarily through the extracted memories that Alma reviews. In his later years, he developed an obsession with paleontology, spending long stretches of time in the Karoo region hunting for rare Permian fossils.

Temba is Pheko's young son. He lives in a neighborhood vulnerable to water shortages and disease outbreaks. He wears glasses funded by his father's former employer and is deeply cherished by his single father.

Pop is Davis's elderly father and a combat veteran. He suffers from Alzheimer's disease but still participates in physical activities, accompanying his son into the woods to cut down a Christmas tree to uphold their long-standing family tradition.

Davis's wife has recently separated from him, moving into a condominium with her new boyfriend. She remains anxious for updates about her son in Korea but is shut out by her estranged husband, who refuses to share the most recent correspondence with her.

Mrs. Sabo is an elderly woman living next door to Grandpa Z. Though her memory is beginning to fail her, she quickly befriends Allison, sharing old photographs and joining the teenager on long fishing trips. She maintains a rich spiritual life and speaks freely about omens and the afterworld.

Robert is Esther's 20-year-old grandson, currently enrolled in college. He interviews her for a history thesis paper and monitors her worsening health, frequently pulling her out of the hospital to honor her wishes to be at home. He connects with her deeply through shared activities like sketching and reading.

Frau Cohen is the House Directress responsible for the girls at the orphanage. As the Nazi regime rises to power, she faces the impossible task of sheltering displaced persons amidst severe food shortages, overcrowding, and the constant threat of deportation orders.

Dr. Rosenbaum is a medical professional in Hamburg who treats Esther's epilepsy. He prescribes phenobarbital to control her seizures and protects her from institutionalization. He is eventually sent to a labor camp but temporarily returns to help the orphans escape.