Tony Webster
Tony is the novel's protagonist and first-person narrator. At sixty, Tony is bald, divorced, and has retired from his job as an arts administrator. Now retired and living alone in the 2000s, Tony looks back on his 1960s high school friendship with Adrian Finn and his first serious relationship with a girl named Veronica Ford. Adrian and Veronica later dated, which outrages Tony and led him to send a cruel letter denouncing their relationship and wishing them ill. Soon after, Adrian killed himself. Forty years later, Tony is named in Veronica's mother's will and has been given Adrian's diary. However, Veronica won't hand the diary over. To see Veronica again rekindles Tony's attraction to her, and he second-guesses his memories of how awful she had been to him. He also regrets the hurtful letter he sent. Eventually, Tony understands that Veronica continues to have a grudge against him because his letter led Adrian to meet with Veronica's mother. That meeting led to an affair, Veronica's mother becoming pregnant, and Adrian killing himself as a result. The novel ends with Tony coming to terms with how he contributed to the accumulation of forces that ruined several lives.
Adrian Finn
Adrian is one of Tony's high school friends. After his parents' divorce, Adrian joins Tony's school and is "absorbed" into Tony's small clique, who all vie for Adrian's approval. Unlike the other boys, Adrian is studious and doesn't shy away from impressing teachers and fellow students with his intelligence. After high school, he studies moral sciences at Cambridge on a scholarship. Adrian later enters a relationship with Veronica and informs Tony that they are together. When Tony writes a cruel letter suggesting Adrian should talk to Veronica's mother about "damage" from her past, Adrian begins an affair with the mother, impregnating her. Adrian reasons to himself that suicide is his most moral and logical option, and so cuts his wrists in the bath.
Veronica Ford
Veronica is Tony's girlfriend while he is going to university. Tony is frustrated when she won't have sex with him, something that only happens only once they have broken up. After having sex, the two part ways on bad terms. Months later, Tony learns in a letter that Veronica is dating Adrian. Tony replies with a letter disparaging Veronica, claiming she probably has some "damage" (sexual abuse) in her past. Forty years later, Veronica is just as difficult as she used to be, as far as Tony can tell. In a series of hints and clues, she brings him to realize how his cruel letter affected her life by setting in motion Adrian's and Sarah's affair, Sarah's pregnancy, and Adrian's suicide.
Sarah Ford
Sarah is Veronica's mother. Tony meets her during a weekend at the Ford family home in the 1960s. Alone together in the kitchen, she warns Tony to not let Veronica get away with too much but won't elaborate. Forty years later, she dies of a stroke and leaves Tony five hundred pounds in her will, along with Adrian Finn's diary. Tony eventually realizes she had the diary because she and Adrian were having an affair before his suicide. He also learns that she became pregnant with a son she named Adrian.
Margaret Webster
Margaret is Tony's ex-wife. After twelve years of marriage, she started an affair. Following an unsuccessful second marriage, Margaret has a civil, friendly relationship with Tony, often meeting him for lunch and openly discussing things that trouble him. However, she tells him he is "on his own" when she suspects he has rekindled his attraction to Veronica forty years later.
Susan Webster
Susan is Tony's daughter with Margaret. She has her own children and is married to a doctor. Although Tony repeats that his relationship with her is "fine," she rarely gets in touch with her father. Tony speculates that she must worry about having to care for him as he ages.
Jack Ford
Jack is Veronica's older brother. When Tony visits the family's home in the 1960s, Jack teases him for his formality, giving Tony the sense he does not approve of him. Tony speculates that Jack may have somehow abused his sister. Decades later, Jack helps Tony over email by providing Veronica's email address.
Adrian Jr.
Adrian Jr. is Adrian's and Sarah's developmentally disabled son and Veronica's half-brother. A tall, gangly man with thick glasses, Adrian lives in a group home for other disabled adults. He had difficulty processing his mother's death. He cowers from Tony when they meet, as if Tony is bad luck.
Alex
Alex is one of Tony's high-school friends. Instead of university, Alex goes to work at his father's business. Alex and Tony more or less lose touch while Tony is at Bristol, but he and Alex meet after Adrian's suicide to discuss what happened.
Colin
Colin is another of Tony's high school friends. As with Alex, Colin and Tony strongly influence each other, leading Colin's mother to refer to Tony as Colin's "dark angel." Tony loses touch with Colin while they are at different universities.
