Clare
Clare is a wild person whose mixed identity prevents her from fitting in as she searches for a sense of belonging. Her mother and sister leave for Jamaica, leaving her perfectly alone, except that she has her father, but it isn't enough. She goes to college, but ends up in London, overwhelmed by the death of her mother. She falls in love with a veteran who leaves her, and the decides to give her life for the people of Jamaica, fighting against crime lords.
Jennie
Jennie is Clare's younger sister. She looks like her mother more, and when the mother leaves the pain-staking life of Miami to go back to Jamaica, Jennie goes too, until the mother dies, and then Jennie comes to stay with the family again in Miami. Jennie and Clare have inverse, opposite experiences, because one is light skinned, and one is dark skinned.
Boy
Boy is Clare and Jennie's other sibling who is so white he literally talks his way into preferential treatment. He is proudly British, he feels, and he painfully attempts his white personality, constantly trying to fit in with white people. He even goes so far as to tell a hotel clerk that, not only is he white, but he is a proud descendent of plantation owners.
Bobby
Bobby is a veteran of the war in Vietnam. He tries to connect with Clare, but the damage in his psyche prevents him from really opening up to her about how confusing and painful his life is with PTSD, which he doesn't really understand technically. He has panic episodes that trouble and confuse her, and when he disappears, Clare soon finds herself looking for him in a new way, by becoming him, accepting PTSD and combat warfare as her fate in Jamaica.
