Kitty Garstin / Kitty Fane

Kitty is an Englishwoman from a very proper family. From a young age, her mother put a great amount of pressure on her to use her natural beauty to get a man of high social status and with a bright future to marry her. Kitty inherits these values but is unable to find anyone who meets her standards. By the time she is twenty-five—which, for her circumstances, made her desperately old—she gives up on finding an ideal mate and marries Walter Fane, a government biologist who normally lives and works in Hong Kong. She moves out there with him within months.

Throughout the story, Kitty is constantly searching for happiness. She first thinks that living up to the vain social aspirations instilled in her by her mother will make her happy, but all it did lead to was a failed marriage...