- Richard "Dick" Diver – a promising young psychiatrist and Yale alumnus who marries his patient Nicole Diver and becomes an alcoholic.[16]
- Nicole Diver (née Warren) – an affluent mental patient who was the victim of incest[c] and who marries Dick Diver.[18] Based on Zelda Fitzgerald.[18]
- Rosemary Hoyt – an eighteen-year-old Hollywood actress who falls in love with Dick Diver.[19] Based on teenage starlet Lois Moran.[20]
- Tommy Barban – a Franco-American soldier-of-fortune with whom Nicole Diver has an affair.[d][21] Based on French aviator Edouard Jozan, and on Italian-American pianist composer Mario Braggiotti.[21][22]
- Franz Gregorovious – a Swiss psychopathologist at Dohmler's clinic who introduces a young Dick Diver to Nicole Warren, his patient.[23]
- Beth "Baby" Warren – an unmarried spinster who is Nicole's older sibling and who disapproves of her marriage to Dick Diver.[24]
- Abe North – an alcoholic composer who is later murdered in a New York speakeasy.[25] Based on Ring Lardner and Charles MacArthur.[25]
- Mary North – the spirited wife of Abe North who divorces him, remarries, and becomes the wealthy Countess of Minghetti.[25]
- Albert McKisco – an American novelist who wins a duel against Tommy Barban.[26] Based on novelist Robert McAlmon.[26]
- Violet McKisco – the gossipy spouse of Albert McKisco who discovers Nicole's insanity and attempts to malign her reputation.[26]
- Jules Peterson – a black man from Scandinavia who helps Abe North and is later found dead in Rosemary Hoyt's hotel suite.[27]
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