Kayla is a 28-year-old widowed architect living in North Carolina in 2010. She is grieving the recent accidental death of her husband, Jackson, with whom she built a modern dream house on a heavily wooded lot in Round Hill. Left to raise her three-year-old daughter alone, she struggles with anxiety about moving into the isolated property while fielding vague threats from a stranger.

In 1965, Ellie is a 20-year-old pharmacology student at the University of North Carolina who decides to volunteer for the SCOPE program to register Black voters in her home county. Raised in a conservative white family, she becomes increasingly aware of racial inequality and determines to force change. By 2010, she is a yoga instructor who has returned from California to care for her ailing brother and elderly mother.

Win is a Black college junior at Shaw University volunteering for his second summer as a civil rights worker in 1965. He is assigned to partner with Ellie for canvassing potential voters. He approaches the dangerous work with intense seriousness and expertise, guiding his fellow volunteers through the hostile environment of rural North Carolina.

In 1965, Reed is Ellie's devoted boyfriend who stays out of the civil rights conflict but hopes to marry her after she graduates. In 2010, he is Kayla's 65-year-old widowed father and the former mayor of Round Hill. He serves as a supportive, steady presence in Kayla's life, helping care for his granddaughter while preparing to downsize his living situation.

Jackson is Kayla's late husband and a fellow designer. Before the start of the 2010 timeline, he dies in a tragic fall on the stairs of the new home he and Kayla built together. His death leaves Kayla as a single mother and casts a heavy shadow of grief over her move to Round Hill.

Rainie is Kayla and Jackson's three-year-old daughter. Innocent and curious, she views the move to the heavily wooded property as an exciting adventure, largely unaware of her mother's deep anxieties about their safety and isolation.

Buddy is Ellie's brother, who works as a mechanic and shares a close bond with her in their youth. He strongly opposes her involvement in the civil rights movement out of fear for her safety and a failure to understand the need for racial equality. In 2010, he is a terminally ill heart patient receiving care from Ellie in their family home.

Pat is Ellie and Buddy's mother. She is a traditional Southern woman who fiercely rejects Ellie's participation in the SCOPE program, viewing it as an affront to their community and social standing. In 2010, she is an elderly woman whom Ellie brings out of an assisted living facility to care for at home.

Known as "Doc Hockley," Danny is a local pharmacist in Round Hill and the patriarch of the Hockley family. While he is generally well-regarded in town for filling prescriptions for Black customers, he remains entirely opposed to Ellie's direct involvement in civil rights work and issues strict ultimatums to stop her.

Brenda is Ellie's childhood best friend. In 1965, she is pregnant, preparing to marry her boyfriend Garner, and thoroughly engrossed in planning her traditional domestic life. She vehemently disagrees with Ellie's progressive political actions. In 2010, she remains deeply connected to Ellie's mother and still harbors deep resentment toward Ellie.

Garner is Brenda's boyfriend and soon-to-be husband in the 1965 timeline. He expects a conventional life in Round Hill and looks down on Ellie's civil rights activism. He is part of the local white male population that views outside organizers with intense hostility.

Greg is a local Black pastor helping to coordinate the SCOPE program by bringing Northern and Western student volunteers to North Carolina. He is initially highly skeptical of Ellie's application, well aware of the extreme danger she faces as a local white woman crossing the racial divide in 1965.

Byron is Ellie's godfather and the town sheriff of Round Hill in 1965. He tries to use his authority and familial connection to dissuade Ellie from challenging the racial status quo, though he offers her his card to call if she faces severe trouble.

Rosemary is a local Black community volunteer in Derby County who works alongside the visiting SCOPE students in 1965. She helps canvas potential voters and occasionally partners with Win on field assignments.

Jocelyn is a SCOPE student volunteer from UCLA. Unlike Ellie, she is an outsider to the South and finds the violent realities of North Carolina terrifying, especially after the volunteer staging area is vandalized with gunfire.

Georgia is a local Black woman who hosts Ellie during the SCOPE campaign. She provides Ellie with a safe place to sleep and shares her pragmatic philosophy about balancing the high personal costs of civil rights work against its long-term benefits.

DeeDee is Georgia's young daughter. Her presence reminds Ellie strongly of a childhood playmate, forging an emotional connection between Ellie and her new host family amid the rising tensions of the voter registration drive.

Mattie was the daughter of the Hockley family's Black housekeeper and Ellie's childhood playmate. She died tragically in a childhood accident on a frozen lake after Ellie abandoned her to play with white children, a memory that fuels Ellie's guilt and later activism.

Officer Johns is a Black police officer in Round Hill in 2010. She provides a sympathetic ear and practical support to Kayla when she is targeted by vandals, illustrating the demographic and professional shifts in the town over the decades.