Victor is an eleven-year-old boy living in 1959 Memphis who struggles with a severe stutter. His speech disorder makes communicating highly stressful, often causing him to use alternative words or lose his breath entirely when talking to strangers. To cover for his friend Rat over the summer, he takes over a local newspaper delivery route. Pedaling through his neighborhood, he closely observes the adults around him while working to manage his social anxieties.

Mam, also known as Miss Nellie Avent, is Victor's Black nanny who moved from Mississippi to Memphis to help raise him. She is the most consistent and comforting adult presence in his life, managing his daily care while his parents are busy. Facing the oppressive Jim Crow laws of 1959, she maintains her dignity while trying to shield Victor from the cruelty of racism and dangerous figures from her past.

Mr. Spiro is an elderly man who lives alone in a house stacked floor-to-ceiling with books. He speaks in an articulate, formal manner and possesses a deep love for literature and philosophy. Unlike most adults Victor encounters, Mr. Spiro looks past the boy's stutter and engages him in genuine intellectual conversation, providing him with pieces of a marked dollar bill to encourage his confidence.

Mrs. Worthington is a customer on Victor's newspaper route who immediately captures his attention. She spends much of her time drinking whiskey and frequently appears disheveled or sad. Her turbulent home life and erratic behavior confuse Victor, especially when she asks him personal questions or fails to pay her subscription on time.

Ara T. is a neighborhood junkman who collects discarded items in his cart. He smells strongly of unwashed clothes and Bugler tobacco, making him an outcast in the community. When Victor gives him a yellow-handled knife to sharpen, Ara T. refuses to return it, using the boy's inability to pronounce the word knife as an excuse to steal the tool.

Rat is Victor's best friend and teammate on the local baseball team. He runs the neighborhood paper route until Victor accidentally injures him with a wild pitch. He spends the month of July recovering at his cousins' farm in the country, leaving the delivery route in Victor's hands.

Victor's mother is a busy woman who leaves much of Victor's daily care to Mam. She loves her son but often struggles to understand his stutter, viewing it as an unexpected anomaly. She also holds strict views against the impending racial integration of Memphis schools.

Victor's father works as an airplane pilot, meaning his schedule frequently keeps him away from home or causes him to run late. He tries to connect with Victor through sports and money, but the two often struggle to find common ground in daily conversation.

Big Sack is a local man who does yard work in Victor's neighborhood. He has historical ties to both Mam and Ara T. from their time in Mississippi and acts as a peripheral observer to the neighborhood dynamics.

Willie is an older, physically larger boy who works as a fellow paper carrier. He acts as a bully at the delivery truck, taking advantage of smaller kids like Victor by stealing their newspaper bundles and pushing them around.

Mr. Worthington is Mrs. Worthington's husband. He is hostile and dismissive toward Victor, slamming the door in his face and refusing to pay for the newspaper. His presence in the house is usually accompanied by the sounds of arguing and breaking glass.

Charles is a mysterious man who appears at Mrs. Worthington's house. He claims to be her cousin, though Victor immediately doubts this explanation due to the secretive nature of his visit.

Rat's mother is a neighborhood woman who manages her son's route materials while he is away. She is firmly against the integration of schools and discusses pulling Rat out of the public school system to avoid mixed classrooms.