Hannie is an 18-year-old formerly enslaved woman working as a sharecropper on the Gossett Grove Plantation in 1875 Louisiana. Separated from her family at a slave market in Texas when she was six, she holds onto the hope of finding them again, keeping three blue beads as her only connection to her mother. She is determined to secure her promised buyout of land and a mule after ten years of labor. Disguising herself as a boy, she acts proactively to protect her future when the plantation owner goes missing.

Benedetta "Benny" Silva is a recent college graduate who takes a teaching job in rural Augustine to pay off her student loan debt. Haunted by a fractured childhood spent moving between divorced parents, she struggles with feelings of isolation and inadequacy in her underfunded classroom. She seeks to engage her apathetic students by introducing them to the local history of their town. She rents a house near the town's cemetery and the abandoned Gossett mansion.

Juneau Jane is the 14-year-old half-Creole daughter of William Gossett and a New Orleans prostitute. Following rumors of her father's death, she arrives at the plantation to assert her claim to her inheritance. She is highly emotional, feisty, and refuses to be dismissed by her legitimate half-sister. Along the journey to Texas, she takes the initiative to record the stories of separated families into a handmade ledger.

Nathan is the last remaining scion of the Gossett family, which owns much of the property in Augustine. Rejecting the traditional Southern aristocrat persona, he spends most of his time working on a shrimp boat in the Gulf of Mexico. He maintains a casual, detached attitude toward his family's controversial history, preferring to live in the present. He grants Benny open access to his family's abandoned mansion and its extensive library.

Miss Lavinia is the legitimate daughter of William Gossett and the presumptive heir to his estate. Secure in her privilege, she treats her half-sister and the sharecroppers with haughty disdain. During the journey to Texas, she becomes withdrawn and emotionally traumatized, relying entirely on Hannie for survival in the wilderness.

William Gossett is the longtime head of the Gossett family and the former master of the plantation. He left Louisiana months earlier to bail his son out of legal trouble in Texas and has not been heard from since. His disappearance triggers the inheritance dispute that forces Hannie, Juneau Jane, and Miss Lavinia onto the road.

Granny T. is an 80-year-old resident of Augustine who possesses a deep knowledge of the town's history. She works at the local barbeque diner and acts as an informal historian for the community. Her vivid storytelling and authentic historical costumes inspire Benny to use local history as a teaching tool in the classroom.

LaJuna is a quiet but intelligent ninth-grade student in Benny's English class. She frequently misses school to help her family but harbors a genuine respect for learning. Having previously explored the Gossett library, she becomes an essential guide for Benny as they catalog the historical texts.

Sarge is LaJuna's aunt and a local contractor in Augustine. She is highly protective of her niece and wary of outsiders stirring up trouble in the community. She explicitly warns Benny against involving LaJuna in the Gossett family's historical secrets.

Moses is a massive, scarred man whom Hannie initially believes is a henchman working for the Gossett family's corrupt attorney. He tracks the girls' movements from Louisiana into Texas, serving as an intimidating presence on their journey.

Gus is a young white boy running away to the Texas frontier. He befriends Hannie while she is disguised as a boy on the steamboat. He proves to be a loyal acquaintance when their paths cross again later in the dangerous territory of Texas.

Robin is Nathan's late sister who died of heart disease two years prior to Benny's arrival. Before her death, she dedicated her life to excavating the dark history of the Gossett family, an obsession Nathan believes contributed to her declining health.

Christopher is Benny's longtime, live-in boyfriend from her time at university in Berkeley. He was on the verge of proposing before Benny shared a dark personal secret with him, an event that drove them apart and prompted her move to Louisiana.