Bill Furlong
Bill Furlong is the central character in the novella. Furlong’s mother worked as a domestic servant in Mrs. Wilson's household, and she, Mrs. Wilson, and a farmworker named Ned all had a hand in raising Furlong. Although he was brought up in humble circumstances, Furlong's proximity to Mrs. Wilson's wealth buffered him from facing more serious social discrimination. All the same, Furlong was bullied at school and even into adulthood due to not knowing his father's identity.
Furlong's childhood shaped him into a hard-working, compassionate, and caring man devoted to his wife and five daughters. As Christmas approaches, he begins to have what could be considered a mid-life crisis when he questions what else matters in life besides his family. Throughout the novella, he spends a great deal of time contemplating and ruminating about how best to live his life. His care and commitment to doing what he considers the right thing leads him to a moral dilemma. Helping Sarah (a young mother living at the convent) will have detrimental impacts on his own daughters' futures, but he can't face himself if he does not intervene. Ultimately, he decides to bring Sarah home no matter what the consequences turn out to be.
Eileen
Eileen is married to Furlong, who often envies her for her pragmatic way of handling things. While Furlong feels everyone's pain as though it were his own and consequently strives to help people, Eileen approaches life with the straightforward perspective that her primary responsibility is to ensure the wellbeing of her daughters. However, there are times when she expands this goal to include others, such as when she gives Furlong mince pies to bring to Ned along with an invitation to Christmas dinner.
Eileen argues against Furlong's plan to intervene on behalf of the girls he sees suffering at the convent. She says that perhaps some of the girls brought trouble upon themselves, and insinuates that Furlong's own mother was responsible for her hardship.
Keegan ends the story before Furlong brings Sarah home, meaning that readers cannot know how Eileen will respond to the situation.
The Mother Superior
When Furlong brings Sarah to the front doors of the convent after discovering her locked in the coal shed, the Mother Superior herself comes to handle the situation. The title of "Mother Superior" indicates that she is in charge of the other nuns at the convent, and Furlong describes her as adept at wielding her power over the place. For example, he states that her head remained "cool" during their tense conversation. She also issues subtle threats about revoking the Furlong girl's ability to study at St. Margaret's.
Despite being a woman herself, the Mother Superior ironically appears to have misogynistic views. She expresses how disappointed Furlong must feel at having only daughters, to which Furlong points out how hypocritical it is for the Mother to disapprove of girls. He also describes her hypocrisy in terms of her appearance: "the well-pressed costume" and "polished shoes" do not hide her ugly treatment of the girls and women at the convent.
Mrs. Wilson
Mrs. Wilson was a wealthy Protestant widow who employed Furlong’s mother as a domestic servant. When Sarah (Furlong's mother) became pregnant, Mrs. Wilson allowed them to remain in her household, where Sarah worked until her death. Despite their differences in terms of religion and socioeconomic status, Mrs. Wilson played an active role in Furlong's childhood. She supported and encouraged his literacy by giving him books and praise.
Furlong never forgets the kind, caring, and respectful way that Mrs. Wilson treated his mother and him. This influences him to help others in his community by giving rides and loose change, allowing clients to pay at a later date if needed, and ultimately to bring Sarah into his home.
Furlong’s mother (Sarah)
Furlong’s mother, named Sarah, was a domestic servant who worked in the Wilson household from the time that she was a teenager until her death. Despite the hardships she passed through, Furlong notes that his mother was luckier than most. Unlike the girls at the convent, Furlong's mother had stable employment and a safe place to live. In addition, Mrs. Wilson and Ned helped her raise Furlong.
Furlong recounts how his mother would hold him with one arm while churning milk with the other, and how she sang to the cows she milked. There were times when she slapped her son for perceived impudence, but this did not taint Furlong's love for his mother.
Mrs. Kehoe
Mrs. Kehoe is the proprietor of a local diner that serves the community, including Furlong's workers. She is well-informed about what happens in the neighborhood. When she hears that Furlong had a run-in with the Mother Superior, Mrs. Kehoe advises him not to get involved in the matters of the convent. According to Mrs. Kehoe, the nuns have powerful social networks that prevent anyone from stopping their unethical exploitation of the women and girls living there. Furlong compares Mrs. Kehoe's practicality to that of his wife, Eileen's.
Sarah, the young mother at the convent
While dropping off a delivery of coal before Christmas, Furlong comes upon a girl named Sarah locked in the coal shed. She had spent the freezing night there in her own excrement, and she experiences weakness and disorientation as a result. As they wait at the convent's front doors, Sarah asks Furlong to inquire about her 14-week-old son. The reader can presume that she was forcibly separated from her child, and the breast milk that later leaks onto her blouse demonstrates her physical longing.
The nuns clean Sarah up, dress her in nice clothes, and present her to Furlong, but he does not believe the story that she was left in the shed after a game of hide-and-seek gone wrong. On Christmas Eve, Furlong finds Sarah again locked in the shed, and he frees her.
Ned
Ned lived and worked on Mrs. Wilson's property along with Furlong and Furlong's mother. He was present throughout Furlong's childhood, "watching steadfastly over him." When Furlong drives to the Wilson residence to wish Ned a happy Christmas, the woman who answers the door notices a family resemblance. Furlong realizes that Ned is likely his father. Upon reflection, Furlong realizes how Ned served as a father figure while letting Furlong believe that he "came from finer stock." It was Ned who polished Furlong's shoes and tied the laces, bought him his first razor, and taught him to shave.
