Cameron, an athletic teenager from Miles City, Montana, who has a dry sense of humor and easy-going manner, is the novel’s protagonist. The reader follows Cameron from her first lesbian experience and her parents’ death at age 12 to her escape at 17 from God’s Promise, a religious residential school and “healing center” for homosexual youth. Cameron’s ability to think critically distinguishes her: She questions everything and accepts nothing in totality. Her escape from God’s Promise indicates her bravery and symbolizes her commitment to her own personal and ideological freedom. By the end of the novel, Cameron overcomes her internalized prejudices around her sexuality and learns to fully embrace her own path. 

Ruth is the beautiful, Born-Again Christian sister of Cameron’s late mother. After Cameron’s mother dies, Ruth quits her job as a flight attendant, sells her condo in Florida, and moves to Miles City to care for Cameron. Ruth’s controlling nature and overzealous religious beliefs spark a rising tension between Cameron and Ruth that comes to the surface when Ruth learns of Cameron’s affair with Coley. Yet, despite her domineering ways, Danforth does not characterize Ruth as cruel or evil; rather, Ruth is well meaning, albeit grossly misguided.