Count Laszlo de Almásy
Almasy is the protagonist of the story. He is part of the Royal Geographical Society making maps of Africa for his country. When war breaks out he and his team are asked to stop their mission, but he has fallen in love with Katharine, a married woman during his exploration. He continues to see her until she calls of their affair. It is only when her husband Geoffrey and her return to the desert to pick him up that he sees her again. But after Geoffrey purposefully crashes the plane killing himself, he leaves Katharine near death as well. When Almasy can't save her he keeps his promise to bury her body at home, but flying back he is shot down and his entire body is burned. He spends the rest of his days confined to a bed with morphine treatments. It's not until he convinces Hana, his nurse during the war, to give him an overdose of morphine that he is able to die and finally be at rest.
Katharine
Katharine is married to Geoffrey and comes to Africa in order to help map the deserts. But Geoffrey is part of a secret mission for England to photograph all of Africa so that England will be able to have a lay of all of it's countries. During her time in the desert she falls in love with Almasy and begins a love affair with him. Though she loves him deeply she calls of their affair and only sees him again as she lays dying after Geoffrey crashes their plane into the desert where Almasy is.
Hana
Hana is a nurse during the war and has experienced great loss. Her lover has been killed as well as one of her best friends. She believes that whoever she loves will die, that she is cursed. After a roadside bombing she decides to take Almasy into a country home to allow him to die and tells the troops she will catch up with them once he does. While there she meets an Indian soldier named Kip whom she falls in love with. She believes he will be the next victim of her curse, but instead he lives to the end of the war. Though they go their separate ways she learns that she is not a curse, that it is war that claims the lives of women, not love.
Kip
Kip is a soldier of Indian background. He is part of the bomb unit for the English military. He begins to live at the country house where Hana is after he hears her playing the piano and demands she stops. He disarms a bomb connected to the piano, and soon after the pair fall in love. After the war is over his best friend is killed by a booby trap bomb left by the Germans and he leaves the home and Hana though he is in love with her.
Geoffrey
Geoffrey is Katharine's husband who is also a part of the Royal Geographic Society. Though he is working a secret mission for the English government in order to photograph all the regions of Africa for intelligence purposes. While he is on mission his wife begins an affair with Almasy and he soon finds out. He doesn't speak of it but it burns him up inside to the point that he crashes he and Katharines plane in the desert, killing himself and leaving Katharine badly wounded to the point that she dies days later.
