Miles Corwin is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He becomes interested in writing about gifted students in South-Central Los Angeles after a student is shot dead, and a meticulously done school assignment is found in his pocket. Corwin is more than just an observer; he becomes involved in the lives of the students and teachers he writes about. He drives a student to court hearings and visits her in her custodial placement, and he also tries to teach the AP class during Little’s absence. He clearly cares deeply about the students he is profiling.

Little teaches the senior AP English class and the 10th graders in the gifted program at Crenshaw. She is from a working-class white background in California and was inspired to go into teaching by John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated when she was in third grade. She lived with one of her professors in college, and she was devastated when he broke up with her. In many ways, she still suffers the scars. She is a gifted teacher who knows how to interest the class in literature, but she is also temperamental and fights with Moultrie, Braxton, and the other teachers and administrators at school, including the principal.