1 | Mrs. Emily | Pollifax | Widow of Virgil, lives in New Brunswick, NJ, has 2 grown, married children. |
| Doctor | | Mrs. Pollifax's physician |
| Mr. | Garbor | Neighbor in Mrs. Pollifax's building |
| Mrs. | Hartshorne | Neighbor in Mrs. Pollifax's building, frequent traveler who likes to show slides of her trips |
| Mr. Jasper | Mason | CIA employee with whom Mrs. Pollifax
has an interview |
| Miss Charlotte | Webster | CIA employee interrupts Mrs. Pollifax's interview |
2 | Bill | Carstairs | OSS-trained leader of CIA agents |
| | Bishop | Carstairs' secretary |
| | Tirpak | CIA agent on assignment in Central America, on Carstairs' team |
| | Higgins | CIA employee in charge of personnel |
3 | Jane | Pollifax | Emily's daughter in Arizona, husband John, has 2 children |
| Roger | Pollifax | Emily's son |
| Misses | Lambert & Donahue | Fellow tourists in Mexico
- Emily shares some excursions |
4 | Señor R. | DeGamez | Proprietor of The Parrot Bookstore in Mexico City |
| Olé | | Mr. DeGamez' parrot |
5 | Chinese man | | Mrs. Pollifax's captor |
| | Farrell | American imprisoned with Mrs. Pollifax |
| Willow | Lee | Chinese agent with whom Farrell was supposed to have a date |
6 | Johnny | | Employee at the Galeria de Artes
in Mexico City |
| General Raoul | Perdido | Agent of Mao Tse Tung, impersonated deGamez
at bookstore |
7 | John Sebastian | Farrell | Works at Galeria de Artes, former Marine, one of Carstairs' agents, Aka: Johnny |
8 | Major | Vassovic | Jailer in the Albanian prison |
| General | Hoong | In charge of Albanian prison, Chinese man who captured Emily |
10 | | Lulash | Guard at the prison who sets Farrell's broken leg |
| Shkyperi | | Land of the Mountain Eagle; Albania |
| Sigurimi | | Albanian secret police |
11 | Thaddeus | Peattie | Colleague of Carstairs from CIA, knew Perdido |
13 | Col. Adhem | Nexdhet | Officer in Sigurimi,
monitored Emily & Farrell's cell |
16 | Stefan | | One of the guards at the Albanian prison |
| The Genie | | Emily & Farrell's nickname for Chinese prisoner in
next cell |
20 | | Smith | Aka the Genie |
22 | Ben | Halstead | CIA operative who meets Emily, Farrell & the Genie in Otranto |
| Bill | | Physician - treats Farrell & the Genie on
SS Persephon |
| Dr. Lee Tsung | Howell | Real identity of the Genie; agricultural scientist kidnapped by the Chinese 2 years before, reputed to be dead |