Lenny is the protagonist of the novel. She lives in the wealthy district of Lahore, India, and is Parsee, a minority religion that is not included in the religious violence that occurs throughout the novel. She had polio as an infant which left her disabled from her early childhood until she is about eight. And at the suggestion of her doctor, her parents deny her formal schooling.

Lenny is very young at the beginning of the novel, perhaps three or four years old, so her perspective is slippery and often omits details such as exact ages or names. As a young child, Lenny enjoys the limitations of her disability, and the way she receives attention and isn’t subject to high expectations. But as a young child, Lenny begins to understand that her lack of formal education is cheating her of something she deserves.

As she grows older, Lenny demands to learn, even in non-traditional ways. Lenny’s journey to awareness and self-discovery occurs in parallel to India’s independence and partitioning. At first, Lenny is truthful to a fault. However, she learns that deferring to men can be a liability when she trustingly gives away Ayah’s location to Ice-candy-man, an accidental betrayal that allows Ice-candy-man to have Ayah raped.