Although she is a first-person narrator, Emmeline Hartfell is a difficult character to define for two reasons: First, she is a young adult whose identity is ever-evolving. Second, given that she was kidnapped as a child by her own father, her life is itself something of a mystery to her.

Kept on a remote island with only her father and a goat for company, Emmeline grows up introspective. She is either unable or uninterested in forging friendships. Her father is her life, and he feeds her a steady diet of fairy tales to enhance her sense of her unique identity. She inherits her father’s sense of smell, and she is hypersensitive to the scents all around her—in people, in nature, and in the city. Through this gift, Emmeline grasps the critical importance scents play in the dynamic of memory. Although she wants like most children the love and protection of her parents, when both reveal darker motivations for their concern for her, she asserts her independence. When she sees her father rapidly withdraw into his research, and when she realizes he lied to her about why they on the island, she acts boldly to destroy her father’s obsession in the hopes of freeing him to be a loving father.