Maria is a driven career woman in a male-dominated world who carries a terrible burden of childhood guilt. Her impulsive decision to burn her father’s papers leads to his arrest and imprisonment and her emigration, together with her mother, to the United States. Because she emigrated at a young age, Maria experiences feelings of internal fragmentation and dissociation from the past, which characterizes many of the younger immigrants in the novel. Once in the United States, Maria assimilates into the American way of life and increasingly leaves her mother behind. Maria longs to reconnect with her mother and understand her, while Annunziata considers their estrangement and inability to bridge their gaps as a positive sign of the advantages that she has given her daughter in life.

The Catholic Italian names of mother and daughter—Maria and Annunziata—together with the father’s name, Giuseppe (Joseph in Italian), associate both women with the annunciation and birth of Jesus to Mary. Metaphorically, her name might imply that Maria should somehow “give birth” to a future hope of redemption for the various characters in the novel. Maria resolutely refuses to marry or reproduce, instead dedicating herself to her career. Even though she is the backbone of Mercury Pictures, she is repeatedly denied any recognition or reward for her work because she is a woman.