Deming is an eleven-year-old Chinese American boy who initially lives in the Bronx with his mother and extended family. After his mother mysteriously disappears, he is adopted by a white couple in upstate New York and renamed Daniel. He struggles with feelings of alienation, balancing his Chinese roots with the expectations of his adoptive parents, and turns to music as a way to cope with his profound sense of loss.

Peilan is an ambitious and fiercely independent woman who immigrates to the United States from a small Chinese village, taking the name Polly. Working grueling jobs in New York to support her son, she feels torn between her desire for freedom and her responsibilities as a mother. Her unexpected disappearance fractures her family and serves as the central mystery of her son's life.

Leon is an immigrant who works difficult hours at a slaughterhouse for minimal pay. Gentle and kind despite his physical exhaustion, he acts as a surrogate father to his girlfriend's son. He struggles to keep the household financially afloat and faces impossible decisions when the family's situation worsens.

Vivian is the oldest of her siblings and the first to arrive in the United States. She contributes to the crowded Bronx household through sewing and housecleaning. Deferential to traditional expectations, she faces an impossible financial burden when the family structure collapses, forcing her to make heartbreaking choices about the children in her care.

Michael is an earnest and studious boy who grows up alongside his cousin-figure in a crowded apartment. He is well-behaved and keenly observant of the adults' struggles. As he grows older, he retains a strong loyalty to his childhood companion and actively seeks to reconnect their fractured family.

Roland is the son of a white mother and a deceased Hispanic father. As a fellow outsider in a predominantly white town, he quickly bonds with his new friend over music and a shared sense of difference. Highly confident and driven, he channels his energetic personality into forming a band, though his ambition sometimes overshadows his friendships.

Peter is an economics professor at Carlough College who adopts a Chinese American boy with his wife. He is a strict and somewhat remote figure who struggles to understand his new son's cultural background. He bonds with the boy primarily through a shared appreciation of classic rock records, though he harbors rigid expectations for the boy's academic future.

Kay is a political science professor at Carlough College. She is anxious about her abilities as a mother and eager to forge a connection with her adopted son. While she is more emotionally vulnerable than her husband, she remains oblivious to the ways her attempts to erase the boy's past cause him further alienation.

Yong is a wealthy businessman who owns a textile factory in China. He possesses an urban registration that grants him considerable social advantages. He is drawn to his English teacher's apparent sophistication, offering her the financial and social stability she has long craved.

Angel is a young woman adopted from China as an infant by an affluent white couple. Because she has no memory of her birth country and does not speak Chinese, she manages her identity differently than others in similar situations. She forms a tight bond with a fellow adoptee, finding solace in their mutual struggle to meet their parents' expectations.

He is a traditional fisherman from a rural Chinese village who raises his daughter as a single father after his wife dies of cancer. He holds conservative views about gender, believing that women should be silent and compliant. This strict environment inadvertently fuels his daughter's desire to rebel and seek independence.

Ms. Li is a resident of Minjiang who strongly disapproves of the local fisherman's rebellious daughter. She is an opportunistic woman who frequently interacts with the village elders and is deeply invested in maintaining the social order of their small community.

Haifeng is a mild-mannered boy from a rural village. Considered somewhat weak and unambitious by the older generation, he follows his former classmate to the city for work. His brief encounter with her has lasting, unintended consequences that alter the trajectory of her life.

Jim and Elaine are affluent, well-meaning friends of the Wilkinsons. Jim is a loud former college roommate, while Elaine is welcoming with a velvety voice. As the adoptive parents of a Chinese daughter, they view the adoption process through a lens of charity and celebration, oblivious to the deeper traumas involved.

Cody is a heavy-set former classmate from the suburban town of Ridgeborough. Planning a move to Colorado, he reconnects with an old acquaintance during a summer session. He represents the casual, unthinking insensitivity of the town's residents, entirely missing the significance of the deeply personal music shared with him.