Ava Wong is a protagonist and point-of-view character. She is 37-years-old, with parents who grew up in Hong Kong and immigrated to the US for her father’s career. They lived in Newton, outside of Boston, where Ava got good grades. She has a brother, Gabe, a father who still lives in Boston, and a mother who, two years before the story opens, died of a heart attack.

Ava is ambitious, driven, and competitive. She attended Stanford University and a top law school before joining a prestigious law firm, meeting the expectations for achievement and success that her family placed upon her. However, Ava never enjoyed the law as a profession. When she married Olivier, an ambitious surgeon, she liked thinking of them as a power couple, but after leaving her law firm to take care of her challenging toddler, Ava is conflicted; she doesn’t want to return to the law, but she also wants to have a job outside the home. When the story opens, Ava feels unfulfilled professionally and as a parent. Caring for Henri exhausts her, and her busy husband isn’t there for emotional support. Ava’s dissatisfaction with her life is the reason she takes an interest in Winnie’s schemes.