Helen Watt is one of the two protagonists in the novel’s modern storyline. She is a British academic who works at a university in London, specializing in Jewish history. Helen is in her sixties and approaching the age for mandatory retirement. She also has Parkinson’s disease, which rapidly worsens over the months covered in the novel’s plot. Helen is very cold and reserved in her demeanor, and does not seem to have many close friends; she has never had children or—so it first appears—a romantic partner. When Helen was a young woman, she fell in love with a Jewish man in Israel, Dror, and has always been haunted by the end of that relationship.

Helen is astute and ambitious. As soon as she sees the documents found in the Richmond house, she becomes determined to understand their mysteries. As she learns more about Ester, Helen becomes more and more obsessed with understanding her story on a personal as well as professional level. Helen is driven by a belief that she can understand Ester’s motives, and that the two of them share some commonalities. She also believes that her former relationship with Dror gives her insights into the Jewish experience, even though she is not Jewish herself.