As with her previous novels, Binchy writes about a large cast of characters:
- Bernadette 'Benny' Hogan - a sensitive, kind-hearted country girl from Knockglen. Benny worries being overweight will hold her back, and cannot believe her luck when handsome Jack Foley falls for her.
- Eve Malone - an orphan raised in the convent her father worked in after her late mother's aristocratic, Anglo-Irish family, the Westwards, reject her. Eve is fiercely loyal to those she loves, and has a fiery temper which proves her undoing at times.
- Nan Mahon - a beautiful, ambitious girl from a working-class Dublin family who seeks to marry into wealth, and sees Eve's connections as the perfect opportunity.
- Jack Foley - a handsome, popular doctor's son who falls in love with Benny.
- Aidan Lynch - a likeable young man with a sense of humour who fancies Eve.
- Simon Westward - Eve's first cousin and a member of the Protestant Anglo-Irish ascendancy class. He has a brief romance with Nan, but does not see her as wife material.
- Heather Westward - Simon's younger sister, who becomes attached to Eve, and vice versa, leading to something of a thawing in relations between Eve and the Westwards.
- Sean Walsh - Eddie Hogan's efficient, obsequious and somewhat unpleasant assistant. He assumes he will marry into the family business, but Benny's romance with Jack forces him to make other plans.
- Mother Francis - the head of St. Mary's convent, who brings up Eve Malone like a daughter.
- Kit Hegarty - mother of Frank Hegarty, whose death in a motorcycle accident on his first day at the university brings Jack and Nan into Benny and Eve's lives. She gives Eve a job and accommodation in her student digs, enabling her to pay her way through university.
- Eddie and Annabel Hogan - Benny's loving but over-protective parents.
- Rosemary Ryan - A pretty, popular girl with her eye on Jack. She is stunned to lose out to Benny, but later develops a friendship with her.
- Clodagh Pine - The niece of local dressmaker Peggy; a lively, ambitious girl who befriends Benny and Eve and helps bring Benny out of her shell.
- Alphonsus ('Fonsie') - The half-Italian nephew of chip shop owner Mario; a popular young man who shares Clodagh's ambition and zest for life.
- Patsy - The Hogan's maid who, like Eve, was orphaned as a child.
