The narrator is the conversational voice guiding the reader through the utopian city of Omelas. She is philosophical and actively invites the reader to help construct the details of the city to make its happiness believable. She values both sensory pleasures and intellectual pursuits, wrestling with the same moral dilemmas that she presents to her audience.

The citizens of Omelas are mature, intelligent adults living in a society free from war, monarchy, and stock exchanges. They enjoy a rich, culturally advanced life filled with both simple and complex pleasures. However, their collective happiness relies on a dark, foundational compromise that they learn about as they come of age.

An abandoned, neglected child kept locked in a tiny, filthy room beneath the beautiful city of Omelas. Stripped of humanity and referred to merely as "it," the child is malnourished, mentally stunted, and lives in constant fear. The child retains enough memory of a former life to beg for release, serving as the necessary sacrifice for the city's prosperity.