The book’s protagonist is an 18-year-old orphan whose grandfather has raised her. Marin’s mother and Australian father met when he was visiting the United States; he left the country before Marin’s mother knew she was pregnant, and there has been either no ability or no attempt to contact him. Marin’s mother died in a surfing accident when Marin was very young. Gramps and Marin appear to be the only two surviving members of the family, placing the pair into a shared isolation. Marin, suffering from feelings of low self-worth, often feels like a burden to her grandfather. She finds solace in her connection with Mabel and her family.

Marin doesn’t undergo a total transformation in We Are Okay, but the novel makes it clear that she’s developing slowly into a more confident person. Even before she discovers Gramps’s betrayal, Marin’s favorite book is One Hundred Years of Solitude, suggesting that she subconsciously recognizes her aloneness. When she discovers that Gramps has been lying to her, she feels that the way she identified herself is no longer accurate. Without the mooring of her grandfather, she goes into a kind of shock; the ghosts of literature she had been so intent on studying in California become a reality in the New York motel.