Sam
is well meaning if self-indulgent. He believes he has good intentions and acts altruistically by nature, but is in reality just as selfish and confused as everyone else his age. He comes home, dismantles his family’s life and his own, tries to put the pieces back together and (sort of) succeeds.

Alex
is a teenager in the body of an adult but is far deeper and more astute than he cares to admit. He hates anything remotely professional: jobs, parents, relationships, etc. After evading responsibility as much as humanly possible, by the story’s end, Alex matures slightly if for no one else than his disappointed mother.

Arthur
is a stifled writer and fully functioning alcoholic. He teaches English to high school kids and has always fancied himself a novelist though has never written a word; he thus makes his life as crazy as the book he has never written—he too attains some skewed, personal version of redemption.

Tess
is a therapist both at work and at home. Though she only wants the best for her family, she often imposes her own opinions without asking the others what they want. She nags and pleads and over time learns to confront others’ problems on their terms, and not her own.