David is a successful American author taking an extended honeymoon in Europe. He prefers to compartmentalize his life into neat routines, valuing traditional boundaries and quiet discipline. Deeply stoic, he represses his emotions and uses his fiction writing as a private escape from social pressures and personal conflicts. He struggles to address his wife's increasingly unpredictable behavior directly, choosing instead to retreat into stories about his childhood in East Africa.

Catherine is a young woman from a wealthy British family who funds the couple's lavish European honeymoon. Having recently lost both of her parents, she lacks professional obligations and suffers from a restless anxiety about her own identity. She continually challenges traditional gender expectations by adopting masculine clothing, cutting her hair short, and occasionally asking to be treated as a boy. Her search for authenticity pushes the boundaries of her marriage in unexpected directions.

Marita is a young woman of independent means who joins David and Catherine at their secluded hotel. She is naturally dark-skinned, quietly confident, and remarkably comfortable in unconventional social situations. Unlike Catherine, she possesses a stable sense of self and respects traditional boundaries, presenting herself as a stabilizing presence for David.

John is a polite acquaintance of David's who also knew Catherine's late father. He provides an emotional distance and an outsider's cautious perspective on Catherine's increasingly unorthodox aesthetic and behavioral choices.

He is a prominent figure from David's childhood who features heavily in the fictionalized memories David uses as an emotional escape. His harsh, sometimes brutal behavior during animal hunts deeply affects young David, teaching the boy early lessons in emotional suppression.

Juma is a seasoned hunter and close companion of David's father in East Africa. He helps lead an expedition to track a specific elephant, an event that profoundly impacts young David's sense of morality.

Monsieur Jean is a hairdresser who collaborates with Catherine in her aesthetic transformations. He cuts and bleaches both Catherine's and David's hair, facilitating Catherine's desire to break social conventions through physical appearance.

She is the co-proprietor of the Mediterranean hotel where David and Catherine spend much of their time. She provides food, drinks, and occasional conversation to the guests while silently enduring an abusive domestic life.

He is the proprietor of the hotel in the south of France. Though he primarily functions as a background figure providing hospitality, his private actions highlight the darker reality surrounding the wealthy guests' isolated bubble.

Nina is a woman who accompanies Marita early in the story. After a public disagreement with Marita in a café, she quickly leaves the area, prompting Marita to seek out David and Catherine's company.