Magdalen Vanstone – the heroine; a headstrong young woman with dramatic talent, who is determined to regain her family's lost inheritance; aged 18 at the opening of the novel Norah Vanstone – Magdalen's elder sister by nine years Captain Horatio Wragge – an audacious, self-proclaimed swindler who is also the Vanstone sisters' uncle by their mother Noel Vanstone – Magdalen and Norah's first cousin; Michael Vanstone's son Mrs Lecount – Noel Vanstone's domineering housekeeper