Desiree Vignes

A light-skinned Black woman with hazel eyes and wavy hair, and Stella's twin sister. As a child, Desiree is impulsive, bold, and restless. She is known to fidget, is not dedicated to schoolwork, and has dreams of becoming an actress. Desiree rejects Mallard’s obsession with lightness and defies society by marrying a Black man with dark skin. Desiree is honest and hard-working, and she is a caring mother to her daughter Jude. As she spends her adult life in the hometown she once fled, her restlessness gives way to a sense of contentment with a life that’s different than one she’d hoped for, but fulfilling nevertheless. Desiree never stops longing for her sister, Stella, or fully heals from having lost her.

Stella Vignes

A light-skinned Black woman with hazel eyes and wavy hair, and Desiree's twin sister. As a child, Stella is practical, studious, calm, and clever. Stella lives her life passing as a white woman, estranged from her family of origin. She spends her adult life trapped in a performance and becomes indistinguishable from the role she is playing. Her sister Desiree and her daughter Kennedy both struggle to feel close to her because she is either physically or emotionally distant. In part because she is always performing, Stella struggles to find true happiness. She grapples with a sense that something is missing. 

Jude Winston

A medical student and Desiree’s daughter. Jude is restless like her mother and as studious as her estranged aunt. Jude grows up lonely in Mallard, as the bullied, dark-skinned child in a town of prejudiced, light-skinned people. As an adult, she is kind, determined, and selfless. She is supportive of her boyfriend Reese, and she is dedicated to becoming a doctor. Her happiness at the end of the novel is hopeful and suggests that the pain of the past can be healed. 

Kennedy Sanders

An actress and Stella’s daughter. Kennedy grows up thinking she is white and is unaware that her mother is passing. When Kennedy leaves home, she struggles to find her way in the world. She is entitled, self-absorbed, and an emblem of white privilege. Kennedy longs to truly know her mother, and she feels as if her mother is always hiding herself from her. When she discovers the truth about her mother, the two women begin to find a path towards true closeness. 

Adele Vignes 

The widowed mother of the Vignes twins. Adele is a loving and hard-working mother who does her best despite being faced with poverty and unimageable loss. She is commanding and overbearing, but she is also kind and wise and tries to counsel her daughters to make the right choices. As she ages, Adele develops Alzheimer’s and begins to lose her memory.

Leon Vignes 

The late husband of Adele and father of the Vignes twins. When the twins are young, Leon is murdered by white men because of a false claim that he’d been writing vulgar letters to a white woman. His death causes a ripple effect of pain and loss that haunts his family. 

Early Jones

A bounty hunter and Desiree’s boyfriend. Early is orphaned as a child when his parents leave him with his aunt and uncle. He has a tough exterior that’s useful in his line of work, and he lives most of his life on the road, uninterested in putting down roots. With Desiree, though, Early is loving, kind, and fiercely loyal. Though they don’t have a traditional marriage, he devotes his life to Desiree and her family and to the search for Stella. 

Reese Carter

A photographer and Jude’s boyfriend. Though he was assigned female at birth, Reese has always identified as a male. He often hides himself and struggles to believe that he is worthy of a relationship with Jude. His gender confirming surgery helps him to embrace his identity and feel comfortable with his body.

Blake Sanders

Stella’s white husband and former boss, and Kennedy’s father. Blake loves his wife, but he doesn’t try very hard to understand her. He views his wife as quiet and shy, and he is embarrassed by her racist attitude toward Black people. Throughout their marriage, he remains unaware of Stella’s secret.

Loretta Walker 

Stella’s Black neighbor and only friend. Loretta is wary of the white neighborhood she lives in, but she welcomes Stella as a friend. She sees Stella’s world clearly, and Stella is drawn to her, attracted to and scared of the possibility of finally being seen. But when Stella believes Loretta might threaten her performance of whiteness, she uses her white privilege to drive Loretta’s family out of the neighborhood.

Reg Walker 

A famous Black TV actor and Loretta’s husband. Reg is well-dressed, patient, tolerant, and kind. He is victimized by Stella when she suggests that he has looked at her inappropriately.

Frantz

Kennedy’s Black boyfriend. Frantz’s disbelief of Kennedy’s Black ancestry underscores Kennedy’s white identity and how she can’t escape it or understand what it means to be Black.

Lonnie Goudeau

Jude’s childhood bully and abusive teenage fling.

Sam Winston 

Desiree’s abusive husband and Jude’s biological father.

Alphonse Decuir

The twins’ great-great-great grandfather on their mother’s side, and the founder of Mallard. Decuir’s vision of the town as a light-skinned utopia directly affects all of the residents who live there after its founding.

Mr. Dupont

A wealthy white man who employs the twins as house cleaners and sexually assaults Stella several times. 

Mrs. Dupont

Mr. Dupont’s wife, a wealthy white woman who owns the house the twins clean.

Lou LeBon

Owner of the diner where Desiree works.