The story starts off with Gene, the narrator in this story, who tells us about his past at Devon School and all of his teenage memories. Gene's best friend and roommate during his life at Devon School is Phineas. Gene and Phineas are the same height and everything. Gene had always been very obedient to the rules and devout to his academics. Gene builds a strong and ever lasting friendship with Finny, they where pretty popular at school.

Another main character is Phineas, also known as Finny. Finny is Gene's best friend and roommate at Devon School in the year 1942. He is five feet eight and a half inches, just like Gene. Finny is very athletic and one of the most athletic guys at Devon School but doesn't hold the best grades. Finny hardly ever gets in trouble because he can smart talk his way out of anything...