Madeline is a 32-year-old farmer who runs the successful Running Knob Hollow Farm with her mother. Deeply rooted in her agricultural life, she is practical and highly protective of her quiet routine. Her insular existence is suddenly disrupted when a stranger arrives in a retro-styled car claiming to be her sibling, forcing her to confront the legacy of the father who abandoned her decades earlier.

Reuben is a Boston-based mystery novelist in his forties who recently lost his mother to cancer. Grief-stricken and intellectually persistent, he copes with his isolation by hiring a private investigator to track down the father who left him thirty years ago. His arrival in Tennessee officially sets the siblings' cross-country journey in motion.

Charles is a restless, enigmatic man who has serially reinvented himself across the United States. Operating under various aliases like Chuck, Chip, and Carl, he starts new lives with different passions before inevitably disappearing. His habit of shedding his past and leaving behind fragmented 8mm home movies creates the central mystery his children seek to resolve.

Pepper is an elite, six-foot-one college basketball player for the University of Oklahoma. Raised by a pragmatic mother after her father's departure, she channels her energy into the sport he initially taught her. Her highly structured, athletic life is abruptly thrown off balance when long-lost siblings arrive on her campus.

Theron is a precocious 11-year-old aspiring filmmaker living in Utah. Possessing an artistic sensibility, he actively uses a video camera to document his surroundings. He treasures a box of old home movies left behind by the man who raised him, viewing film as a way to understand his fragmented family history.

Rachel is Madeline's resilient mother who co-runs Running Knob Hollow Farm. Grounded and practical, she has long harbored quiet knowledge about Charles's tendencies, choosing to focus on providing a stable, fruitful life for her daughter rather than dwelling on the man who left them.

Cathy is Pepper's pragmatic and highly successful mother. After Charles left her, she built a thriving business empire and devoted herself entirely to guarding her daughter's athletic career, fiercely protecting Pepper from emotional distractions.

Trista is a successful morning news anchor based in Salt Lake City and the mother of Theron. She balances her demanding public career with raising her son, carrying the weight of her complicated romantic history.

Reuben is a two-year-old toddler living on a wealthy property in California. Raised primarily by an aging groundskeeper on an artist colony, he represents the newest chapter in a long history of unconventional family dynamics.

Lucky is a wealthy heiress who, along with her sisters, is transforming her large California property into an artist colony. She shares custody of a young toddler with the man she employs to maintain the grounds.

Evalynn is a private investigator hired to track down a decades-old cold trail. Her meticulous dossier uncovers the hidden siblings scattered across the country, providing the map for the cross-country journey.

Winona is Reuben's late mother. A former Boston resident, her recent death from cancer serves as the emotional catalyst for Reuben's journey to confront his estranged father.

George is a wealthy, married news anchor based in Utah. His past involvement with a colleague heavily impacted the trajectory of multiple lives.

Daedra is a star freshman basketball player for the University of Oklahoma. Her sudden and severe ankle injury dramatically shifts the momentum of an important game.