George Webber is the protagonist of Wolfe's 1940 novel. He is a writer who has just just found success with his first novel, but the people of his hometown who inspired it malign and reject him for how he has portrayed them. George's editor, Foxhall Edwards, becomes George's friend for a time, until the two men have a philosophical disagreement that drives a wedge between them. Lloyd McHarg is an established and highly successful writer for whom George feels great respect and admiration. However, McHarg's disappointment with his own success and the emptiness he feels deepens the unease George feels with his own success and contributes to his growing feelings of disillusionment.

Mr. Katamoto is George's downstairs neighbor for a time, a Japanese man who helps George develop both more self-awareness and the realization that many relationships in life are finite.

There are many denizens of Libya Hill, George Webber's hometown, with whom he becomes reacquainted when he returns for Aunt Maw's funeral, including Nebraska Crane, Parson Flack, and Judge Bland.

Piggy Logan is a character modeled after American sculptor Alexander Calder. Logan entertains the wealthy social elites of Manhattan with a miniature circus of wire figures and animals. The performance is grotesque, and the episode in which he appears is meant to satirize the boredom and emptiness of the lives of wealthy socialites. George meets him through his association with Frederic Jack and his wife at one of their parties. Their milieu includes other New York City wealthy elites who are described in chapter 15.

The women in George's life include Esther Jack, an older woman with whom he conducts an on-again, off-again affair. When George leaves for Europe, he falls into a romance with Else von Kohler, a young German woman. As in the development of Piggy Logan, Wolfe used his real-life relationship with Thea Voelcker as inspiration for Else. Amy Carlton was based on socialite Emily Davies Vanderbilt, heiress to the Vanderbilt fortune.