Maia is the protagonist of the novel, and is the focal character of this bildungsroman that charts her development from a lone orphan to a bold and adventurous young woman with a chosen family. At her boarding school, Maia initially feels alone in the world. She has lost her parents in a train crash and spends her holidays alone at boarding school while the other girls go home to their families. She looks different than the other girls in her class, with darker hair and features; as the narrative states, “Her ears, laid bare by the heavy rope of black hair, gave her an unprotected look” (8). Her naivety, vulnerability and longing for a home drive her childish romanticized vision of familial bliss with the Carters, despite her friend Clovis’s warning that they are strangers to her. Her school friends are all frightened for her, and Maia is daunted by the unfamiliar landscape to which she is headed. Her initial Fear of the Unknown is conveyed through third-person commentary, for the narrative asserts, “Maia was a heroine, but not the kind that people envied; more the kind that got burnt at the stake” (11).