Agnes Deigh

This satirically-named character whose moniker derives from the Latin "agnus dei," or lamb of God in the Bible, is a sun-tanned woman with a commanding voice who is married to a Hollywood screenwriter. In a sense, she is a distillation of the wealthy liberal New Yorker who is careful to observe all the politically and culturally correct behavior but who nonetheless is the subject herself of much envious gossip. She is described as "that full-blown flower whose fey petals curled and yellowed round its white spore-bearing carpel."

Esmé

Esmé is a 29-year-old hippie prototype that is more a beatnik chick instead of a flower child. She presents herself as an intellectual and serious artist. Her lifestyle is open and user and"swinging" in the 1960s sense of the word. Esmé is also a heroin user and incipient alcoholic. She cares about art, her friends and her social...