Chimane

Chimane is Karabo’s best friend. Hailing from Karabo’s hometown, she works for the white family living next to Mrs. Plum. When their schedules allow, Karabo and Chimane meet in the backyard to exchange the latest gossip and comment on their employers' peculiar behavior. On their Thursday afternoons off, they dress up and head into town to shop and socialize at the Black Crow Club. When Chimane becomes pregnant, she fears her family will struggle if she leaves her job to care for a baby, leading her to get an abortion.

Dick

Dick is employed by Mrs. Plum, where he tends the garden, cleans the house, and looks after the dogs. He uses his earnings to pay for his sister’s education. A diligent worker, he is too scared of the white people to break any rules. Although he is the first to learn Mrs. Plum’s secret, he keeps it to himself. However, when a rumor circulates that the blacks plan to poison the white people’s dogs, Mrs. Plum dismisses Dick.

Karabo

Karabo, the story’s female narrator, hails from the black township of Phokeng near Rustenburg. Like many black South Africans, she has moved from her town to work as a domestic worker for white families in the Johannesburg suburbs, sending money to her family every month. Over the course of the story, Karabo ages from nineteen to twenty-two and gains significant insight into herself and the world around her. When she begins working for Mrs. Plum, she understands her ‘‘place’’ as a servant in a white suburb, recognizing that all employers are white and all employees are black. However, she lacks awareness of the broader political and social dynamics between blacks and whites across the country and is unaware of efforts for systemic change. As she becomes more politically aware and self-assured, she grows to resent Mrs. Plum’s patronizing attitude and eventually demands higher wages. By the story’s end, she remains Mrs. Plum’s employee, but her approach to her job and her relationship with Mrs. Plum is now clear-eyed and confident.

Lilian Ngoyi

Lilian Ngoyi was a real person and a member of the African National Congress, a political party fighting against the unjust treatment of black South Africans. In the story, she addresses the women at the Black Crow Club about the dynamics between blacks and whites and encourages them to maintain their dignity while working for whites. From her, Karabo learns to see her individual situation within a larger political framework.

Kate Plum

Kate, Mrs. Plum’s daughter, is the same age as Karabo and attempts to befriend her. At the story's outset, Kate attends boarding school during the week and returns home on weekends. Upon graduating, she becomes more rebellious, playing loud music, staying out late, and falling in love with a black doctor. She tries to explain her mother’s behavior to Karabo but grows frustrated when Karabo doesn’t understand.

Mrs. Plum

The central character, Mrs. Plum, is a widow residing in the Johannesburg suburb of Greenside. She presents a complex and often perplexing figure to Karabo. As a member of South Africa’s privileged white minority, Mrs. Plum is also an author and activist advocating for better treatment of the black majority. She hosts both whites and blacks in her home and chooses imprisonment rather than allowing her black servants to be searched under the pass laws. Despite this, she strongly opposes her daughter's relationship with a black doctor, whom she had invited to several dinner parties. Mrs. Plum insists that Karabo dine with her but makes no effort to understand Karabo’s food preferences. She offers Karabo reading materials and pays for her dancing lessons to help her improve, yet she can be a petty employer, denying Karabo a few days off to mourn her uncle's death. Mrs. Plum exemplifies the white liberal in apartheid-era South Africa: she appreciates Africans as a collective but does not seek to know them as individuals.