Elijah Baley is a class five plain-clothes detective with the New York City Police Department. He is married to Jezebel “Jessie” Baley and has a son, Bentley. He has a wrinkled, long face, dark brown eyes, and dark hair. He goes by the nickname “Lije” and is characterized as practical and brooding. He is the protagonist, and the novel is written from his third-person limited perspective.

Lije begins the novel as a surly, quick-tempered detective forced by his college friend and boss to take a murder case. Lije’s practicality and character are shown through his reminiscences of past occurrences, such as his involvement with the Barrier Riots, running the strips as a child, and sneaking yeast treats with Uncle Boris. While Lije is not a romantic, he is able to see the draw of romanticism. Lije is a reader, which is one of the reasons the Spacers choose him as Daneel’s partner.

Lije is loyal to a fault and concerned primarily with his family’s well-being. His father’s loss of employment had a profound impact on him. He carries the lesson with him, worrying about his own job becoming a robot’s: “his father had been thrown out because of an accident that had done damage, that had killed people.