Bernard is a 63-year-old lawyer and the former mayor of Boston. Widowed after his wife's passing, he raised their three boys as a single parent. A public scandal involving his biological son abruptly ended his political career ten years ago. He remains stubbornly invested in politics, frequently pushing his adopted sons to attend lectures and campaign events against their wishes.

Teddy is a 20-year-old college student at Northeastern University. Adopted by Bernard and Bernadette as an infant, he stands out from his ambitious family due to his sweet disposition. He frequently skips his classes to care for his elderly great-uncle and maintains a deep spiritual connection to the memory of his late adoptive mother.

Tip is a 21-year-old senior at Harvard University studying ichthyology. Adopted by the Doyles shortly after Teddy, he possesses a brilliant, highly focused academic mind. He actively resists his father's attempts to steer him toward politics, preferring the solitude of his biology lab. An unexpected accident violently interrupts his routine and forces him to engage with the world outside his studies.

Kenya is an independent 11-year-old girl living in a housing project near the Doyles' affluent neighborhood. She spends considerable time alone due to her mother's long working hours. A highly talented middle-distance runner, she is thrust into the care of the Doyle family after a sudden crisis leaves her temporarily without a guardian.

Sullivan is the 33-year-old biological son of Bernard and Bernadette Doyle. He recently returned to Massachusetts from humanitarian medical work in Uganda under mysterious circumstances. He carries intense guilt over a fatal car accident that occurred a decade earlier, an event that permanently altered his relationship with his father.

Tennessee is an assisted-living nurse who works long hours to provide for her daughter, Kenya. She quietly monitors the Doyle family from a distance for years. Her sudden intervention during a winter storm leaves her severely injured in the hospital and forces her hidden connection to the Doyles into the open.

Father Sullivan is a retired Catholic priest and the great-uncle of the Doyle boys. He receives media attention for purportedly performing miraculous healings on members of his former congregation. Despite his reputation, he struggles with failing health and private doubts regarding the afterlife.

Bernadette is Bernard's late wife and the mother to his three sons. She died of cancer when the adopted boys were very young. A beautiful, rosewood-carved statue of the Virgin Mary bears her exact likeness and serves as a powerful symbol of her memory for the surviving family members.

Tennessee Alice Moser is a deceased woman from Tennessee Moser's past. She materializes in a dreamlike state to offer guidance to her old friend, challenging past decisions and urging a different path forward.

Billy is Bernadette's great-grandfather. As a teenager in the early 20th century, he stole a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary to impress a beautiful woman. His initial lie about the statue's origins sparks a generational cycle of jealousy within the family.

Doreen is Bernadette's great-grandmother. A famously beautiful woman, she initially plans to join a convent before being swayed by a carved likeness of herself. Her vanity overtakes her religious devotion.

Natalie is Sullivan Doyle's former girlfriend. She died in a car accident ten years prior to the events of the novel, an incident that fractured Sullivan's life and ended Bernard Doyle's political career.