Giovanni

Giovanni is a young bartender who has come to Paris to escape a turbulent past in Italy. He has a passionate relationship with David, yet he grows too dependent on him and is ultimately rejected. Around this time, Giovanni also loses his job at the bar where he met David, and while in a state of desperation, he returns there to demand his job back. When Guillaume, his boss who had exploited him sexually in the past, refuses, Giovanni murders him and is subsequently arrested and condemned to death for this crime.

David

David is a conflicted young man, torn between his sexuality and the expectations foisted on him by his family and his culture—expectations that have forced him into a loveless relationship with Hella. His desire to live as he chooses clashes with his cultural and familial obligation to perform masculinity, an inner conflict that leads him to break Giovanni’s heart. Racked by guilt, David nonetheless continues with his spontaneous and thoughtless behavior, which alienates Hella and ultimately leaves him alone and friendless in the south of France.

David’s Father

David’s father is a disciplinarian who refuses to finance his son’s travels in Europe unless he promises he will return home. He has high expectations of his son to act as a “real man” by marrying Hella and earning money of his own.

Hella

Hella is David’s girlfriend, whom his family expects him to marry. Upon arriving in Paris, David proposes to her, at which point she has a personal crisis and takes a trip to Spain in order to rediscover herself, leaving David to initiate his affair with Giovanni. Because she sees many unhappy older women in Spain, Hella comes to the realization that she does, in fact, want a family with David, so she comes back to accept his proposal.

Hella is slow to recognize that her fiancé is gay, choosing to see his relationship with Giovanni as nothing more than a close friendship. However, when she does discover his sexuality, she leaves him immediately.

Joey

Joey is a childhood friend of David with whom he had his first sexual experience and whom he then rejected as both a friend and love interest due to his insecurities.

Jacques

Jacques is a middle-aged Belgian American living in Paris who prefers younger men to men of his own age, and he uses his money to obtain favors from them. He is openly exploited by David and later enters a relationship with Giovanni after Giovanni has stopped seeing David.

Guillaume

Guillaume is a manipulative man who uses his power as a bar owner to obtain sexual favors from young men. Giovanni is one of these men, but when Guillaume goes back on his promise to give Giovanni back his job for the price of sex, he is murdered by the younger man.

Sue

An American woman living in Paris, Sue is the target of David’s seduction for the purpose of proving to himself that he is still sexually interested in women.