Rio Gonzaga
She is the opening narrator, when she is 10-years-old. She belongs to the upper class because of her ancestry, but she's got a heart for the oppressed peoples. Her mother takes her from Manila to the U.S. when she's still a child, so she disappears from a large portion of the narrative. Returning to her home country as an adult, Rio once more narrates for readers. She describes the shock of seeing her homeland from such a mature perspective. The contrast is sharp.
Pucha Gonzaga
She's Rio's cousin and the life of the party. She ends up marrying Boomboom Alacran for his wealth and prestige, but he ends up being a terrible husband. They quickly get a divorce.
Severo Alacran
He is an aristocrat, a self-made businessman who owns several companies. This kind of wealth is extreme in any country but especially so in such an impoverished place as Manila which means Severo is a lonely man. He cannot trust anyone around him, but he uses this as license to use people however he sees fit. He engages in numerous affairs with his female servants and even Lolita Luna, the celebrity actress, much to his wife, Isabel's, dismay.
Rosario Alacran
She resents her father's wealth and treatment of her mother. Her position in the family is demonstrated by her enduring childhood nickname, "Baby." She elopes with Pepe Carreon when she's only 17, determined to escape her unhappy family drama.
Daisy Avila
She is Miss Philippines, a wildly successful beauty queen. When her father, the senator, is assassinated during the contest for Miss Philippines, she loses faith in the integrity of the contest. This suspicion is confirmed the deeper she searches until at last she renounces her title and denounces the contest. She engages in a relationship with Santos Tirador, a known leftists conspirator. General Ledesma, eager to exploit Daisy's reputation and power as the former senator's daughter, kidnaps her and takes her to a military facility in the mountains. There she's raped and tortured until she finally escapes.
Joey Sands
Sands is a DJ and works as a male prostitute at night. He's also gay. As a child, Joey's adoptive father, whom he calls "Uncle," sexually abused him and tried to have him arrested. By chance Joey witnesses the murder of Senator Avila at his club one day. He embarks on a journey into the mountains to escape from those seeking to silence him from testifying to that extent.
Orlando Romeo Rosales
He is a general socialite who is supported by his girlfriend Trinidad Gamboa, another socialite. He's a vain man who doesn't really care about people so much as what they think of him. He breaks up with Trinidad to pursue an acting career, but he's mistaken for a member of the Cordilleras, a radical political party suspected of terrorism. He's murdered right around the same time as Senator Avila.
