The Narrator is an unnamed woman who leaves the West to assist her elderly, visually impaired mother. She acts as a caregiver while harboring a sense of personal failure regarding her own life choices. Her perspective shapes the recounting of her family history, frequently blending her physical memories with researched information from old newspapers.

Anna Avalon is a former circus performer who currently lives as an elderly, blind woman in New Hampshire. During her youth, she traveled the world and performed daring acrobatics with the Flying Avalons. After experiencing a severe workplace accident, she reinvents her life by trading her aerial career for a quiet domestic existence on a farm. She retains a physical grace and extreme calmness in crises.

Harry Avalon is the flamboyant first husband of Anna Avalon. He performs with her in a blindfolded trapeze act known as the Flying Avalons. He represents a romantic, unrestrained past outside traditional social expectations of post-war America. He is deeply connected to his circus heritage and values public performance.

The Father is a gentle, occasionally forgetful small-town doctor who specializes in mending broken bones. Originally harboring dreams of big-city life and global travel, he instead settles on an inherited farm in New Hampshire. He provides a stabilizing, quiet counterpoint to the dramatic energy of the circus. He spends his later years reading books to his wife.