Audrey is the central protagonist of the ensemble novel and its structural foundation. While the novel alternates between the four viewpoints, Audrey’s perspective is the very first and the very last that the reader sees. She and her home, Willow Lodge, are the forces that bring all four characters together. She has a connection to each woman and brings them all together to a place that serves as their battlefield against both their external adversary, Sir Strickland, and their own internal conflicts. In this way, she serves as a mentor archetype, directly or indirectly encouraging other characters to overcome their fears.

Audrey is an honest, hardworking romantic, who was privileged enough to grow up in a household where she was valued and loved and then to go on to have a loving home and family with Matthew and their children. However, the effects of the war took their toll on her, and she struggles with her competing needs to take care of others and put herself first. She is a foil character to Gwendoline in many ways, beginning with their relationships and actions as children.