Casey is a former teacher living completely off the grid in a dilapidated cabin in rural New Hampshire. She retreated to the woods after losing her job in Boston, seeking quiet but finding herself haunted by past mistakes and unresolved anger. Highly distrustful of everyone around her, she maintains a strict, self-protective distance from her landlord and her only neighbor. Her isolated existence is violently interrupted when she discovers a bloodied, armed teenager hiding in her toolshed during a severe storm.

Ella is a high school student living in squalid conditions with her neglectful mother. Lacking access to clean clothes or adequate food, she faces intense bullying at school and severe isolation at home. She harbors desperate hopes of uncovering her unknown father's identity so she can permanently escape her horrific domestic environment.

Eleanor is an emaciated teenager who breaks into a rural property during a severe New Hampshire thunderstorm. Carrying a bloody backpack and an engraved switchblade, she refuses to share her origins or explain her injuries. Her volatile behavior shifts rapidly between childish vulnerability and lethal aggression, making it difficult to determine whether she needs rescue or poses a serious threat.

Anton is a high school student frequently in trouble with school administration. He initially participates in mocking his peers but reveals a surprisingly supportive loyalty after surviving a violent altercation in a local park. He teaches practical survival skills like lock-picking and offers physical protection against aggressive classmates.

Desiree is a woman severely afflicted by a hoarding disorder that has rendered her home a maze of trash and rotting food. She fills the house with useless collectibles while entirely neglecting basic sanitation and care. Prone to erratic anger, she enforces harsh physical punishments and uses locked closets to control her environment.

Lee is an attractive, kind man who lives in the only other cabin near Casey's isolated property. He consistently offers assistance, including proposing to fix her leaking roof and inviting her to weather the storm at his house. Despite his neighborly generosity and gentle demeanor, his persistent attention triggers deep suspicion in his highly guarded neighbor.

Rudy is the dismissive landlord who manages the rural New Hampshire property. He routinely ignores requests for necessary home repairs. He frequently crosses professional boundaries and makes inappropriate physical advances toward his tenants.

Brittany is a popular, conventionally attractive student at the local high school. She possesses the affluent home life her poorer classmates deeply envy. She actively participates in mocking outcasts and flaunts her seemingly perfect social status.

Devin is a violent high school bully who corners his peers off school grounds. He escalates physical fights by drawing a weapon. His actions prompt a severe, bloody intervention from a passing bystander.

John is a university professor who teaches sociology and lives a comfortable suburban life with his wife and daughter. His peaceful existence is disrupted when a strange teenager breaks into his home and confronts him at work. He firmly defends his family's boundaries against erratic intrusions.

Vanessa is the matriarch of the Carter family. She lives in a comfortable house with a family dog, representing an idealized maternal figure. She remains largely insulated from the darker elements of the surrounding community.

Principal Garber handles disciplinary issues at the local high school. He attempts to address underlying issues of poverty when students act out. His bureaucratic interventions fail to grasp the severity of his students' home problems.

Brad is a younger brother living in an apartment complex. He serves as a willing participant in his sibling's roughhousing and lock-picking practice. He remains a background figure to the older teenagers in his home.

Bettina works as an administrative assistant at the university. She accidentally assumes a wandering teenager is her boss's daughter. She provides the stranger with snacks while she waits in the hallway.

Karis is a former student from a previous school in Boston. Her difficult home circumstances prompted a desperate, career-ending intervention from her teacher. Her situation permanently altered the trajectory of her teacher's life.