Daisy is a highly reflective and self-aware woman whose life spans the 20th century. Left motherless at birth, she grows up under the care of a neighbor before reuniting with her father in Indiana. She frequently struggles with a sense of emptiness and a lack of connection to her origins, constantly searching for a feeling of authenticity. Throughout her life, she occupies various conventional roles as a wife, homemaker, and mother, actively adapting her identity to fit the expectations of those around her.

Barker is a serious, mild-mannered man who prefers discipline and order in his life. He resents giving up his specific passion for studying the lady-slipper flower to teach introductory botany to provide for his family. Beneath his proper exterior, he struggles with loneliness and shameful early desires, eventually finding comfort in his horticultural pursuits and family life.

Cuyler is a skilled stonecutter who is profoundly affected by early tragedy. He possesses a deep, wholehearted devotion to his first wife, which later transforms into intense spirituality and an obsession with building intricate stone monuments. As he ages and moves to Indiana, he develops a confident public speaking voice and achieves significant financial success in the masonry business.

Magnus is a reticent, hardworking man who struggles to understand the emotional needs of his wife. After she abandons him over a seemingly minor financial dispute, he experiences profound confusion and a delayed romantic awakening. He seeks solace in reading old romance novels and prefers a simple, isolated life in his native Scotland.

Clarentine is a decisive and maternal woman who feels deeply unfulfilled in her marriage to Magnus. She takes control of her destiny by moving to Winnipeg and establishing a successful florist business to support herself. She views herself as uniquely joined in sisterhood with her neighbor, stepping in as a surrogate mother without hesitation when tragedy strikes.

Mercy is an orphan raised at the Stonewall Orphans Home who struggles with severe physical discomfort and a profound sense of isolation. She copes with her ailments and emotional numbness by eating, particularly buttered bread. She keeps her struggles private, avoiding doctors and hiding her distress from her devoted husband.

Harold is the heir to a wealthy masonry family whose life is heavily overshadowed by his father's mysterious suicide. He is a morbidly curious and anxious young man who relies on alcohol to numb his obsessive thoughts about his family's past.

Mrs. Hoad is the wealthy, controlling matriarch of the Hoad family. She adheres strictly to extreme domestic stereotypes, firmly believing that a woman's entire existence must be dedicated to pleasing and caring for her husband.

Fraidy is Daisy's fiercely independent childhood friend who firmly rejects traditional domestic roles. She lives on her own, supports herself financially, and openly embraces a life of numerous romantic affairs, heavily judging the women around her who subscribe to the typical homemaker ideal.

Beans is Daisy's childhood friend who completely buys into the traditional marriage-and-children ideal. She is intensely focused on making others happy and fulfilling her assigned societal role, which makes her particularly vulnerable when her domestic life faces inevitable challenges.

Alice is Daisy's eldest daughter, an intelligent and highly outspoken academic who studies Russian literature. She firmly believes that a woman's identity is tied strictly to her career rather than her domestic output, and she consciously works to temper her naturally sharp, critical personality.

Warren is Daisy's son, a sensitive and inquisitive boy who goes on to study music theory in college. He is deeply aware of his mother's hidden intellect and sincerely laments the wasted potential he sees in her life as a simple housewife.

Joan is Daisy's youngest daughter, characterized early on as a somewhat lost individual who later adopts a hippie lifestyle. She views the world through a highly emotional lens and attempts to understand the deeper, often hidden motivations behind her family members' actions.

Beverly is Barker's niece and a former war nurse who carries the heavy weight of traumatic experiences with a remarkably cheerful exterior. When she becomes pregnant out of wedlock, she seeks refuge in Daisy's home, forging a tight-knit, alternative family bond.

Victoria is a bright student who pursues a master's degree in paleobotany. Having grown up without knowing her father's identity, she develops a profound empathy for Daisy's interest in family history, channeling her own curiosity into the academic study of ancient plant life.

Maria is an Italian woman who marries the older, wealthy Cuyler Goodwill. She takes strict, immediate control over the household chores, leading to quiet but intense domestic rivalries with the other women in the family.

Jay is the pragmatic editor of the Recorder magazine who oversees the publication's gardening column. He maintains a friendly, increasingly informal correspondence with his writers but keeps a firm professional distance when necessary to make business decisions.

Simon is Barker's brother who remains in the demanding stonecutting trade. He maintains very little contact with his family, occasionally reaching out only when he requires direct financial assistance.

Andrew is Barker's brother and Beverly's father. Like his brother Simon, he remains emotionally distant from his immediate family, viewing relationships primarily through a practical or financial lens rather than an emotional one.

Lewis is a university professor who oversees extensive research on fossilized plant life. He engages in a quiet, secretive romance with his student Victoria while facilitating a trip that allows her family to explore their ancestral roots.

Abram is an older peddler known locally in the village as the old Jew. He is present on the fateful day of Daisy's birth, delivering the crucial news of her mother's collapse in broken English, and he places a small foreign coin on the newborn's forehead.