Rafaela is an intelligent woman originally from Yucatan, Mexico, who earned a degree at Los Angeles City College. Following a major argument with her husband, Bobby, she takes their two-year-old son to live in Mexico at a property owned by her friend Gabriel. She manages the construction of his property and keeps a watchful eye on her surroundings. She is observant and deeply protective of her child as strange geographic anomalies begin to unfold around her.

Bobby is a hardworking Chinese Singaporean immigrant who runs a successful janitorial business in Los Angeles. He speaks Spanish fluently and is highly driven by financial success and material stability. He finds it difficult to function without his wife and son after they leave for Mexico, focusing his energy on saving money, quitting smoking, and trying to figure out how to reunite his family.

Emi is a second-generation Japanese American television producer for the NewsNow network. She focuses heavily on media, commercial value, and entertainment, viewing the world primarily through the lens of broadcast events. She is sarcastic, flirty, and highly skeptical of cultural diversity as a commodity.

Buzzworm is a tall community activist and Vietnam veteran known throughout his South Central neighborhood for his reliability. He acts as a self-appointed social worker for the city's vulnerable populations, wearing a palm tree shirt and carrying a collection of watches with unique stories. He listens to a constant stream of radio stations to stay informed and mediate between different communities.

Manzanar is a Japanese American former surgeon who now lives unhoused on an overpass in downtown Los Angeles. Born in the Manzanar concentration camp, he views the vast freeway system as a great organic root system. He measures the flow of daily traffic and translates the noise of the city into grand, silent orchestral movements.

Gabriel is a Chicano reporter for a major Los Angeles newspaper, inspired by the legacy of Ruben Salazar. A romantic with a love for film noir, he purchased land directly on the Tropic of Cancer, planting a symbolic orange tree there. He balances his idealism with the gritty reality of investigative journalism as he pursues leads involving unhoused populations and a mysterious smuggling ring.

Arcangel is an enigmatic performance artist traveling gradually north toward the United States. Claiming a lifespan of over 500 years and bearing strange scars on his back, he speaks a hybrid dialect and possesses surreal physical strength. He entertains crowds with feats of endurance and carries an out-of-season orange with him.

Sol is Rafaela and Bobby's two-year-old son. Innocent and active, he travels with his mother to Mexico and becomes an inadvertent participant in a strange journey north, frequently capturing the attention and protective instincts of the adults around him.

Rodriguez is a proud, hardworking handyman employed to build a brick wall around Gabriel's property in Mexico. Mourning the loss of his sons to violence, he views his labor as a way to live, applying precision and care to his craft despite the strange geographic distortions affecting his work.

Doña Maria is an older local woman who lives near Gabriel's property. She acts as a motherly figure, frequently checking in on Rafaela and Sol, offering advice, and expressing confusion over Gabriel's rustic decorating choices.

Hernando is Doña Maria's son, a man involved in illicit logistics and smuggling operations. He drives a black Jaguar and becomes highly aggressive when his covert shipments are disrupted.

Margarita is a Salvadoran refugee who operates as an undocumented street peddler in Los Angeles. She enjoys listening to Aretha Franklin and forms a friendly, respectful dynamic with local community advocates.

Xiayue is a twelve-year-old girl smuggled into Mexico from Asia. Separated from her older brother during the harrowing journey, she relies on Bobby to pay her trafficking fees and bring her safely across the border.

SUPERNAFTA is an imposing masked wrestler wearing a titanium suit and a head of fire. Acting as an avatar for global commerce and technological progress, he argues that true freedom comes only from free markets and the circulation of capital.

Celia is Bobby's neighbor who has worked in the garment district since her father's business burned down. She relies on Bobby as a community contact, especially after he previously found her brother's body following a tragic shooting.