Lauren is a 37-year-old accountant living in West Hollywood who carries the weight of a unique matrilineal inheritance: a single-use silver ticket meant to undo a past mistake. She wrestles with the emotional and financial toll of severe infertility alongside her husband, Leo. Seeking a temporary reset, she spends the summer at her family's Malibu beach house, where she reconnects with her past and the ocean she once loved.

Marcella is Lauren's mother and a former second-grade teacher whose life is defined by deep anxiety and an overwhelming need to protect her family. Practical but perpetually worried, she maintains strict vigilance over her husband's health following his early coronary issues. Her relationship with her daughter is marked by a stifling, albeit fiercely loving, protectiveness.

Sylvia is Lauren's 92-year-old grandmother, an irreverent, barefoot woman who lives in a small cottage on the family's Malibu property. She possesses a rich, mysterious past, including time spent gambling in 1960s Las Vegas, that she often deflects questions about with humor. In stark contrast to her daughter Marcella, Sylvia embraces life's unpredictability and maintains a pragmatic, free-spirited philosophy.

Dave is Lauren's father, a family lawyer, and a successful mystery novelist who writes under a pen name. A lifelong surfer who underwent open-heart surgery at age 39, he possesses a warm, life-affirming demeanor that contrasts sharply with his wife's constant worry. He shares a profound, grounding bond with his daughter and encourages her to embrace the present.

Leo is Lauren's husband, a pragmatic and supportive director of photography who is interviewing for a television job in New York. Unaware of the Novak family's magical inheritance, he acts as Lauren's anchor to reality. He is increasingly worn down by the emotional and financial exhaustion of their prolonged fertility treatments, creating a painful rift in their marriage.

Stone is Lauren's first love, a man she dated for a decade before he moved to Colorado to start a business. He temporarily returns to Malibu to care for his dying stepmother, Bonnie. Deeply connected to the ocean and Lauren's youth, his reappearance prompts Lauren to paddle back out into the waves and confront the choices that led to her current life.

Irina is Lauren's great-grandmother, a brave and resourceful woman who grew up in Odessa, Ukraine, during the 1920s. She is the original recipient of the family's magical silver ticket, which she received as a young girl in exchange for an act of kindness, binding her descendants to a legacy of survival.

Bonnie is Stone's stepmother, a warm and sharp-minded woman who raised him from the age of six. Despite battling a severe and worsening cancer diagnosis, she maintains a welcoming presence and a deep love for reading, remaining a comforting figure to Lauren.

Jeff is Stone's father and Bonnie's husband. He struggles to accept his wife's terminal illness, remaining in denial and even booking a future vacation to Baja for the two of them.

Hinda is a reclusive elderly woman living in 1920s Odessa, Ukraine. When young Irina gifts her a pair of shoes she cannot afford, Hinda repays the kindness by presenting Irina with a small wooden box containing the family's first silver ticket.

Bobby is a cowboy from Kentucky connected to a slot machine operation whom Sylvia Steiner falls intensely in love with in 1960s Las Vegas. He proposes to her at the Little White Chapel before running afoul of mob connections.

Morris is Irina's husband and Sylvia's father, a childhood acquaintance who served in the war and built a shoe repair business with Irina in Brooklyn. He eventually passes away at the age of 52 from liver cancer.