A teenage servant girl escaping the starvation and disease of the Jamestown colony. She relies on a stolen hatchet and her deep religious faith to survive the freezing woods as she heads toward French settlements. Treated as a pet for most of her life in London, she experiences freedom for the first time while hunting for grubs and shelter. Her deep isolation prompts profound philosophical reflections on religion and nature.

A wealthy Englishwoman who originally purchased the protagonist from a poorhouse to serve as a companion. She uses heavy makeup to disguise her age and surrounds herself with artists to solicit compliments. Vain and deeply insecure, she forces her entire household to relocate to Jamestown out of jealousy over her second husband.

The mistress's second husband, whose intense greed drives the household from London to the disastrous Jamestown settlement. He uses his religious authority to rationalize brutal and selfish behavior. He quickly becomes unpopular in the home due to his violent temper and strict demands.

The daughter of the mistress and her first husband. She has developmental disabilities and is largely ignored by her parents, relying entirely on the protagonist for care and feeding. Her innocent suffering in the starving colony serves as a major catalyst for the protagonist's desperate escape into the woods.

A young Dutch man who works on the ship carrying the household to the Jamestown colony. He speaks a different language than the protagonist but treats her with genuine affection and respect. He frequently appears in the protagonist's escapist daydreams as an imaginary companion to combat her extreme loneliness.

A London tradesman and the mistress's first husband. Unlike his wife, he initially recognizes the young protagonist as a human being. When he contracts the plague, he shares his life stories and fears with the young girl while they are locked together in a quarantine room.

The grown son of the mistress from her first marriage. He embodies the casual cruelty of his social class, taking violent advantage of his power over the household servants. His recent death at the fort indirectly supplies the protagonist with the heavy boots she needs to survive the winter woods.

A colonist who previously murdered a sex worker in London and now views his violent impulses as a religious duty. He is dispatched from the fort to track down the fleeing protagonist. He deeply resents the lack of opportunity for private, interpersonal cruelty in the failing colony.

A former Spanish missionary who fled into the forest forty years prior following an attack on his settlement. Years of extreme isolation have transformed him into a ragged hermit who survives in a carved dugout boat. His mind remains governed by outdated colonial prejudices and religious paranoia.