A would-be writer and reluctant heir to a perfume factory who becomes infatuated with Sugar despite being married to Agnes.

William’s delicate wife, whose grasp on reality has deteriorated since Sophie’s birth and who remains unaware of his relationship with Sugar.

William and Agnes’s young daughter, kept apart from her unwell mother and later placed under Sugar’s care as her governess.

William’s pious older brother, an aspiring clergyman whose benevolent work and feelings for the widowed Emmeline Fox create inner conflict.

Dr. Curlew’s widowed daughter and Henry’s friend, a respected Rescue Society member committed to helping women leave prostitution.

Sugar’s mother and brothel madam, who put Sugar into sex work at thirteen and later sells her exclusivity to William.

A sex worker living and working in Church Lane who provides the reader’s first personal connection to the novel’s London.