Nancy is a 63-year-old suicide hostess living in a future society where severe overpopulation is managed through mandatory, pleasure-eliminating birth control and voluntary euthanasia. She wears a highly sexualized professional uniform but is required by law to remain a virgin. Outwardly, she presents a tough-minded and dedicated professional facade, but she harbors secret dissatisfaction with her highly regulated life. She holds advanced degrees and possesses significant martial arts training.

Billy is a political dissident known to the authorities as a "nothinghead," meaning he refuses to take the government's mandatory ethical birth control and retains normal physical sensations. Appearing as a short and thin young man, he operates a subversive movement designed to dismantle the current social order. He fundamentally believes that sexual freedom is essential to human purpose, leading him to target suicide parlors as part of his radical ideological campaign.

Pete is a police officer tasked with maintaining law and order in Hyannis, Massachusetts. He holds a somewhat sexist view of the hostesses' emotional strength and initially underestimates their capabilities. His coarse demeanor and over-eagerness to apprehend his target create security vulnerabilities and deviations from strict police protocol.

Mary is a tall brunette suicide hostess who embodies the compliant mindset of her society. She maintains the cheerful, heavily made-up facade required of her profession. She enthusiastically supports law enforcement operations and strictly upholds the perceived moral correctness of the government's mandates.