Clare is a stalled art history PhD candidate and unfulfilled stay-at-home mother living in New York City. She feels alienated from her affluent domestic life, suppressing her intellectual ambitions behind a cheerful exterior she calls her "mother mask." Her life shifts dramatically when she encounters a charismatic art dealer holding a painting intimately connected to her academic past. Desperate to feel alive again, she makes risky choices that threaten her carefully constructed family life.

Tasha is a former investment banker and current board member at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA). As the exceptionally wealthy wife of a hedge fund manager, she treats high-end art and social connections as instruments to consolidate power. She operates with cold pragmatism, expertly manipulating the people and institutions around her to serve her family's financial interests.

Jed is Clare's husband and the general counsel for Gatepost, a powerful New York hedge fund. Raised in a privileged environment, he maintains a boy-scout demeanor that hides intense professional anxiety. He attempts to insulate his family from his workplace stress, though his reliance on his parents' wealth and his boss's approval creates friction at home.

Gabriel is a charismatic French art dealer who runs the Prévost-Kline gallery in Chelsea. He is uniquely perceptive, recognizing Clare's genuine passion for art and seeing through the pretensions of his wealthy clients. While he acknowledges the art trade is largely a racket, he maintains a sincere reverence for aesthetic beauty and seeks genuine connections outside his commercial obligations.

Dorothy is Jed's mother, a formidable matriarch who ruthlessly guards her family's social standing. She views Clare as an unsuitable outsider and uses her wealth to enforce her control, from dictating interior decorating choices to threatening legal action. She operates with polished politeness that barely conceals her vicious protectiveness over her son and granddaughter.

Elise is an impeccably dressed private investigator specializing in Art & Antiquities Intelligence. She operates with cool, detached pragmatism and possesses extensive knowledge of high-stakes financial tracking. Independent and entirely focused on results, she offers a stark contrast to Clare's domestic life while pushing her to think strategically.

Alec is the powerful head of the hedge fund Gatepost. He is deeply entrenched in New York's elite financial circles and views fine art primarily as a display of extreme wealth. He delegates the legal complications of his aggressive investment strategies to his subordinates.

Clement is the chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA). Ambitious and highly conscious of institutional politics, he is willing to compromise the museum's preservation mission in exchange for career advancement and funding.

Sadie is the young daughter of Clare and Jed. Her traumatic premature birth profoundly impacted Clare's mental health, making Sadie the center of both Clare's fierce protectiveness and Dorothy's overbearing expectations.

Maggie is Clare's best friend and a working reporter. Living outside of New York, she provides Clare with practical, non-judgmental advice and leverages her journalistic skills to research obscure corporate entities.

Abe is Jed's father, an aloof patriarch who resides in a Fifth Avenue apartment with Dorothy. He is generally detached from daily domestic drama but occasionally exposes uncomfortable truths about his children's professional shortcomings.

Lauren is Jed's sister, a woman perfectly adapted to the Bast family's privileged lifestyle. Her routine presence in affluent New York neighborhoods creates logistical complications for Clare's private activities.

Pam is a sharp, skeptical NYPD detective assigned to investigate high-profile crimes in the art world. She is thoroughly unimpressed by the posturing of New York's wealthy elite and uses direct confrontation to rattle her suspects.

Greg is an NYPD detective who assists in parsing the complex web of alibis and financial documents presented by the suspects in their art-world investigation.

Viktor is a sanctioned Russian oligarch whose massive wealth flows quietly into American institutions through a network of offshore shell companies. He operates entirely in the background, utilizing intermediaries to acquire art and manage investments.

Mina is a fellow mother at Sadie's nursery school who is expecting her second child. While friendly, she is firmly entrenched in the conventional expectations of upper-class motherhood and fails to grasp Clare's deep dissatisfaction.

Michael is Gabriel's business partner at the Prévost-Kline gallery. He manages the administrative side of the business and serves as the executor of Gabriel's complicated estate.

Beatriz is Gabriel's ex-wife, a working artist who remains closely connected to his personal affairs. Despite their divorce, she maintains an intimate understanding of his life and serves as a crucial source of information for investigators.

Peter is a lawyer who acts as a nominee director, a legal front designed to hide the true identities of wealthy investors operating shell companies like Axion and Kallsten Holdings.

Emil is the Wolfe family's imposing bodyguard. Quiet and physically intimidating, he performs the practical, often dangerous tasks required to insulate his wealthy employers from the consequences of their schemes.

Noodle is a pet rabbit brought into the Bast household. The rabbit and its cage add minor domestic complications to Clare's life while inadvertently providing an excellent place to hide objects.