Charlie
Charlie Kaufman is a screenwriter who's been commissioned by Columbia Pictures to write an adaptation of Susan Orlean's book The Orchid Thief. He's made a name for himself with his previous screenplay, Being John Malkovich, but he's struggling to find the story he wants to tell within the pages of the book, and he is hellbent of finding a way to adapt it.
Donald
Donald is Charlie's twin brother who moves in with him. He's hopelessly optimistic and naive enough to believe he can become a screenwriter by taking Robert McKee's Story Seminar. Ironically, Donald sells his spec screenplay and eventually is asked for help by Charlie.
Susan
Susan Orlean is the author of The Orchid Thief. She writes about a man in Florida named Laroche who is after a rare species of flower, the ghost orchid, hardly known to man. As is revealed as the film progresses, she has fallen in love with Laroche and attempts to protect him from being caught as he seeks the ghost orchid in order to produce a drug from it.
Laroche
Laroche is the subject of Orlean's book. He studies and tracks rare species of flowers. He and Orlean begin a love affair, and we discover that he is not a simple connoisseur of the rare ghost orchid, but attempting to harvest it in order to reproduce a drug he's made from it.
