Pastor Murinzi
The Hutu pastor who hid Immaculée and six other women during the genocide.
Leonard Ukulikiyinkindi
Immaculée's father, a teacher and farmer. He dies in the genocide.
(Marie) Rose Kankindi
Immaculée's mother, a teacher and farmer like her husband. She dies in the genocide.
Aimable Ntukanyagwe
Immaculée's oldest brother, five years her senior. He is the only member of her immediate family to survive the genocide because he was studying abroad in Senegal at the time.
Damascene Jean Muhirwa
Immaculée's second-oldest brother, three years her senior and her best friend until his death in the genocide. He was the youngest person in their region to earn a master's degree.
John Marie Vianney Kazaneza
Immaculée's youngest brother, three years her junior, who went by Vianney. He died in the genocide.
Sarah
One of Immaculée's first friends at the Lycée girls' school. She is Hutu, from the capitol, Kigali, and invites Immaculée to come with her to see her family. They later become college roommates.
Clementine
Another of Immaculée's friends at the Lycée. She is one of the few Tutsi students at the school and one of Immaculée's best friends. She dies in the genocide.
Janet
Immaculée's best friend in primary school, a Hutu. Janet turns against her in the genocide.
John
Immaculée's college boyfriend, a Hutu. They are in love for a time, but she finds him changed and distant when he visits Pastor Murinzi's house during the genocide.
Theoneste Bagosora
The leader of the Interhamwe.
Paul Kagame
The leader of the RPF (and later Rwanda's president), he is a Tutsi raised in Uganda who fights against the Interhamwe in the genocide.
John Paul
One of Immaculée's brothers' friends from before the genocide. Immaculée and John Paul reunite in the French-run refugee camp and he tells her how her parents, Damascene and Vianney, died.
Esperance
One of Immaculée's mother's sisters. Immaculée and Esperance reunite at the French refugee camp.
Jeanne
One of Immaculée's mother's sisters. Along with Aunt Esperance, they reunite with Immaculée at the French refugee camp.
Florence
A new friend that Immaculée makes at the French camp. She was attacked in the head with a machete by Hutus killers and was taken for dead, even loaded into a truck between the bodies of her sister and parents. She is thrown over a cliff to dispose of the bodies; somehow, she survives.
Pierre
A French soldier in Rwanda who wants to have a relationship with Immaculée, who views him only as a friend.
Bazil
A Hutu neighbor who went to fight with the Tutsi rebels and convinces the Tutsis, to whom Immaculée is fleeing from the French camp, that she is not a Hutu spy.
Pierre Mehu
A spokesman for UNAMIR - United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda - who hired Immaculée after the war.
Buhoro
Immaculée's fourth-grade teacher, a Hutu who hated Tutsis.
Athanasia
A 14-year old girl who hides in the bathroom with Immaculée.
Beata
A 12-year old girl who hides in the bathroom with Immaculée.
Therese
A 55-year old woman who hides in the bathroom with Immaculée.
Claire
One of Therese's children, who is Immaculée's age and hiding in the bathroom with her.
Sandra
One of Therese's daughters, who is seven years old, and one of the bathroom hiders.
Sembeba
Pastor Murinzi's son.
Malaba
A woman Immaculée's age, one of the later arrivals to the bathroom. Her sister is Solange.
Solange
A teenage girl, one of the later arrivers to the bathroom full of hiding women.
Fari
Aloise's husband, who hid at the UN during the genocide.
Colonel Gueye
A Senegalese officer at the UN who escorts Immaculée and Sarah to Mataba via helicopter.
Traore
A captain who escorts Immaculée around Mataba when she returns.
