Book One
The Houses
Who keeps what, and for whom.
The House of Kapitan Gan
- Swee Neo
- Eldest daughter of Kapitan Gan; keeps her father's ledgers and his English correspondence
- Swee Hoon
- Second daughter; borrowed novels, and a hairpin for every day of the week
- Swee Choo
- Third daughter, eighteen; asks what things actually cost, and says the number aloud
- Swee Lian
- Fourth daughter; botanical sketchbooks she keeps to herself
- Swee Bee
- Youngest daughter, fifteen; notices everything and says nothing
- Nyonya Gan
- Mother to five daughters; runs the house, and does not as a rule raise anything
- Kapitan Gan
- Father to five daughters; head of the house, and of his kongsi
The Household
- Auntie Kim
- Matchmaker to this stretch of the quay; widowed young
- Ah Seng
- Household steward to Kapitan Gan for nearly thirty years
- Ah Teck
- Twenty-two; works the godowns on and off, and calls the count for his gang
The House of Kapitan Ong
- Kapitan Ong
- Head of the rival house, and of a rival kongsi
- Wei Siang
- Kapitan Ong's son
The House of Robert Ashworth Senior
- Robert Ashworth-Lee
- Shipping accounts for Boustead's; two seasons off the boat from Bristol
- Mr. Ashworth
- Robert's father; a British legal man, by way of Sydney
Also of the Quay
- Ah Chuan
- Head clerk in the godown; can tally a manifest faster than any man on the floor
- Wei Beng
- Kapitan Gan's man for what is said on Beach Street before it reaches the quay
- Mrs. Khoo
- Old Khoo's wife; arranges the temple flowers, and a good deal else
- Aunt Augusta
- Robert's aunt in Bryanston Square; an invalid entirely on her own terms
- Miss Cordelia Faircourt
- Lady Hartfield's niece; a most agreeable young woman, by every account but her own