Yesteryear Characters

Natalie, called Nattie in her youth and Mama in the Yesteryear household, is a devout woman who leaves small-town Idaho for Harvard, marries wealthy Caleb, and becomes an Instagram tradwife. She performs happiness while privately battling postpartum despair, financial dependence, and the conviction that her life is a test from the Lord. The story is told through her perspective as she moves between her real-time family life and the brutal pioneer-style ranch called Yesteryear.

Arc: Natalie tries to build a meaningful life through marriage, motherhood, and online performance, but each effort leads her deeper into captivity and self-deception. After Clementine takes the younger children away, she and Caleb leave the ranch, and she is eventually sentenced to thirty years for aggravated child abuse. In the epilogue, she is interviewed by Reena, still insisting the television set is not her house.

• Caleb — her husband, captor, and eventual mutual hatred
• Clementine — her eldest daughter, who later takes the children away
• Mary Heller Mills — her daughter who writes a memoir about leaving her
• Maeve — her young daughter in the Yesteryear household
• Abel — her son in the Yesteryear household
• Noah — her son in the Yesteryear household
• Samuel — her son and later one of the neighbors
• Stetson — her son and the neighbor who reports her to Clementine
• Jessa — her younger daughter
• Junebug — her fifth child, whom she never fully knew
• Eliza Heller — her mother
• Abigail — her estranged sister
• Doug Mills — her father-in-law and financial backer
• Amelia Mills — her mother-in-law
• Shannon — her producer who exposes and accuses her
• Reena Magliotti — her former college roommate and final interviewer

Caleb is Natalie's husband, a wealthy, aimless man who becomes the overbearing patriarch of Yesteryear, where he is called Old Caleb and Papa. He slaps Natalie, keeps her confined to the ranch, and expects her to perform as his wife and mother to the children. In the real-time timeline he is a conspiracy-prone, emotionally immature father who tells Natalie he is in love with Shannon and later agrees to leave with her.

Arc: Caleb drifts from rich son to would-be kindergarten teacher to rancher and political prop, insisting he only went along with the pioneer life because he did not want to leave his family. After Clementine takes the children, he tells Natalie he hates her too, and they leave the ranch together.

• Natalie Heller Mills — his wife and captive
• Clementine — his daughter, who confronts him
• Mary Heller Mills — his daughter
• Maeve — his daughter
• Abel — his son, whom he takes to the far woods
• Noah — his son
• Samuel — his son and one of the neighbors
• Stetson — his son and one of the neighbors
• Doug Mills — his father
• Amelia Mills — his mother
• Shannon — the woman he says he loves

Shannon is the producer Natalie hires for her Instagram account; she gains control of the content, grows close to the children, and has a relationship with Caleb. She admits she initially made a bet to debunk Caleb's beliefs, and later gives an interview accusing Natalie of assault and animal abuse, using filmed footage of the children.

Arc: Shannon embeds herself in the ranch as an indispensable employee, then becomes the whistleblower who exposes the family to the public and helps Clementine understand the outside world. In Mary's memoir she is shown telling Clementine to go easy on Natalie.

• Natalie Heller Mills — her employer, accuser, and victim of her allegations
• Caleb — her lover
• Clementine — the child she gives a phone and tells about tradwives

Clementine is Natalie and Caleb's eldest child, who appears first as a newborn Natalie finds unnerving, later as a sullen child in Shannon's footage, and finally as the adult who rescues her younger siblings. She refuses to perform for her mother's camera and represents the truth-telling Natalie cannot face.

Arc: Clementine grows up inside Yesteryear Ranch, learns from Shannon about tradwives and the world outside, and eventually returns to the ranch with a warrant, tells Natalie she is going through menopause, and drives the younger children away to Santa Monica.

• Natalie Heller Mills — her mother, whom she confronts
• Caleb — her father
• Mary Heller Mills — her younger sister whom she helps escape
• Maeve — her younger sister
• Abel — her younger brother
• Noah — her younger brother
• Stetson — her brother, who calls her about Natalie
• Samuel — her brother, one of the neighbors
• Shannon — the former producer who gave her a phone and stayed in touch

Mary is the capable, stern eldest girl in the Yesteryear household who stitches Natalie's ankle, makes her do chores, and occasionally gives her tonic and bread. As an adult she writes the memoir The Book of Mary, telling the story of growing up at Yesteryear Ranch and leaving with her siblings.

Arc: Mary moves from enforcing the household's rules to helping Natalie escape, then is taken away by Clementine and builds a new life in Santa Monica. In the memoir's prologue, she addresses Natalie directly, saying she misses her and still loves her.

• Natalie Heller Mills — her mother, addressed as Mama
• Caleb — her father
• Clementine — her older sister who drives the family away
• Maeve — her little sister
• Abel — her brother
• Noah — her brother

Maeve is an affectionate, childlike girl in the Yesteryear household who calls Natalie Mama, worries about the chickens, and comforts Natalie in bed. She is sick for a time, recovers, and is among the children Clementine takes away in the red Subaru.

Arc: Maeve remains gentle and caring despite the family's harsh life, and her fever and recovery become part of Natalie's final days on the ranch before the children are removed.

• Natalie Heller Mills — her mother, whom she calls Mama
• Caleb — her father
• Mary Heller Mills — her older sister
• Clementine — her grown sister who takes her away

Abel is one of the boys in the Yesteryear household, a child who plays at frontier violence and, on his thirteenth birthday, is declared a man by Old Caleb and taken to the far woods. He goes on repeated trips with Old Caleb afterward and is cryptic with Noah about what happens.

Arc: Abel crosses the threshold into manhood under Old Caleb's control and at the end is removed from the ranch by Clementine along with the other children.

• Natalie Heller Mills — his mother
• Caleb — his father, who takes him to the far woods
• Noah — his younger brother
• Mary Heller Mills — his sister
• Maeve — his sister

Noah is one of the boys in the Yesteryear household who runs from Natalie when she tries to walk away, and who is desperately sad when Abel leaves with Old Caleb. He rejects women's work, shouts that the women are stupid, and is later carried home sleeping from the barn.

Arc: Noah is left behind when Abel is taken to the far woods, shows anger and grief over it, and is eventually removed from the ranch by Clementine.

• Natalie Heller Mills — his mother, whom he calls useless in anger
• Caleb — his father
• Abel — his older brother
• Mary Heller Mills — his sister
• Maeve — his sister

Samuel is Natalie and Caleb's son, one of the boys she prays for in Yesteryear and one of the neighbors who secretly supplies the ranch in the later timeline. He gets Natalie pills when he can and agrees with Clementine's account of the family.

Arc: He grows from a boy in the family into one of the bearded men helping Old Caleb, and his cooperation helps make Clementine's intervention possible.

• Natalie Heller Mills — his mother
• Caleb — his father
• Clementine — his sister
• Stetson — his brother

Stetson is Natalie and Caleb's son, one of the neighbors in Yesteryear and the man whose house Natalie stumbles into while rambling about needing a doctor. He calls Clementine, setting in motion the final rescue of the children.

Arc: He grows up as one of the sons supplying the ranch from outside, and his phone call to Clementine is what brings her to the ranch with a warrant.

• Natalie Heller Mills — his mother
• Caleb — his father
• Clementine — his sister, whom he calls
• Samuel — his brother

Jessa is one of Natalie and Caleb's younger daughters, called our resident firecracker in Natalie's memory. She appears in Shannon's content and in the damaging footage crying for her mother in the barn.

Arc: She is a background figure in the influencer years and is remembered by Natalie as a child she did not fully attend to; her fate is folded into the general removal of the children.

• Natalie Heller Mills — her mother
• Caleb — her father
• Clementine — her older sister

Junebug is the couple's fifth child, born at home while Natalie insists Shannon film the birth; the name Junebug was once shared online and made Natalie miserable. Natalie later admits she did not spend enough time with Junebug to know her.

Arc: Junebug appears mainly as an infant in memory and footage, and Natalie's regret about her is part of the final reckoning.

• Natalie Heller Mills — her mother
• Caleb — her father
• Clementine — her older sister

Eliza Heller is Natalie's mother, a religious woman who teaches her to tell people her father is no longer with us and to be kind. She later pushes Natalie to jog after childbirth, advises her to imagine an audience watching her, and finally confesses that she cheated on Natalie's father.

Arc: Eliza evolves from a source of gentle, repressive advice into a woman confronting her own hypocrisy, telling Natalie toward the end that kindness is the whole damn thing.

• Natalie Heller Mills — her daughter
• Abigail — her older daughter

Abigail is Natalie's older sister, who warns Nattie not to do cocaine, marries Bryce, and becomes an overwhelmed mother of five. She later announces she is leaving Bryce, moves in with their mother, goes to therapy, and unfollows Natalie's Instagram.

Arc: Abigail's trajectory from anxious sister to struggling wife to divorced woman in therapy mirrors the family's unraveling, and her refusal to participate in Natalie's online fantasy deepens the estrangement.

• Natalie Heller Mills — her younger sister
• Eliza Heller — her mother
• Bryce — her husband, whom she leaves
• Pastor Ben — the pastor she dates after divorce

Doug is Caleb's wealthy father and a politician who funds the Idaho ranch, demands that Natalie give his son a big American family, and later launches a presidential run. He treats scandal as a public-relations problem and eventually runs out of money, which helps Clementine's warrant become possible.

Arc: Doug moves from financier and family patriarch to presidential candidate desperate to contain the family's scandals; his withdrawal of funds and political calculations inadvertently enable the children's removal.

• Natalie Heller Mills — his daughter-in-law
• Caleb — his son
• Amelia Mills — his wife
• Clementine — his granddaughter

Amelia is Caleb's mother, a polished, wealthy hostess who drinks secretly, leaves Natalie mother's little helper pills, and sobs Help into her neck. She is found passed out in Doug's dressing room at an election party and later whispers Bad girl to Natalie during Shannon's interview.

Arc: Amelia deteriorates from a composed matriarch to a woman visibly unraveling, offering the same pills she uses herself and watching the family's destruction with detached cruelty.

• Natalie Heller Mills — her daughter-in-law
• Caleb — her son
• Doug Mills — her husband
• Clementine — her granddaughter

Reena is Natalie's college roommate, a competitive, dismissive student who hosts pregames, sleeps with a boy while Natalie is in the room, and later becomes an unhappy McKinsey intern. After being laid off, she resurfaces as an interviewer and conducts Natalie's televised special.

Arc: Reena shifts from a college rival to a symbol of the career path Natalie rejected, and finally to the professional interviewer who reads Mary's memoir aloud on air after Natalie chooses her.

• Natalie Heller Mills — her former college roommate and interview subject

Nanny Louise is the nanny Natalie hires to avoid being alone with her children; she plays tea with Clementine, pokes Samuel and Stetson's tummies, and questions the homeschooling. She asks to be called Louise rather than Nanny Louise.

Arc: Louise remains a steady, observant presence in the household, staying up talking with Shannon and later carrying Junebug at Doug's rally.

• Natalie Heller Mills — the mother who employs her
• Clementine — the child she plays with
• Shannon — a fellow employee she stays up talking with

Aimee is a nanny at Yesteryear Ranch who whispers conspiratorially with Shannon and gives Clementine a piggyback ride at Doug's rally.

Arc: She is a minor background figure whose alliance with Shannon signals the household turning away from Natalie.

• Natalie Heller Mills — the mother who employs her
• Shannon — the producer she whispers and exchanges looks with
• Clementine — the child she carries

Tammy Lane runs a six-week social media marketing course from her kitchen, teaching about the Divine Christian Feminine and promising to help women make six figures a month on Instagram. The course is framed as prayer and community but is really about profit.

Arc: She mentors Natalie in online performance, and her lessons push Natalie further into the curated persona that eventually collapses.

• Natalie Heller Mills — her student
• Cassidy — her niece and breakout mentor

Cassidy is Tammy Lane's niece and serves as Natalie's breakout-room mentor in the social media course. She critiques Natalie's smile as inauthentic and helps trigger Natalie's obsessive mirror practice.

Arc: She is a minor figure whose criticism contributes to Natalie's self-commodification as an influencer.

• Tammy Lane — her aunt
• Natalie Heller Mills — the mentee whose account she critiques

Bryce is Abigail's high-school sweetheart and later her husband, described as having a bad temper and making sexual demands. He does not appear in person in the later story; Abigail announces she is leaving him.

Arc: Bryce exists offscreen as the source of Abigail's unhappiness and eventual divorce.

• Abigail — his wife

Pastor Ben is the pastor Abigail dates after her divorce; he helps her study for her GED and holds progressive views about divorce and gay people. He is also the person who comforts Eliza after her confession of cheating.

Arc: He is a minor supporting figure in Abigail's new life.

• Abigail — the woman he is dating
• Eliza Heller — the woman he comforts with God's love

Vanessa is Natalie's former track teammate who gossips about the pesticide barrel at Natalie's barn while buying pesticides for her own children. Her observation contributes to Natalie's sense of being watched and judged.

Arc: She appears briefly as a source of public scrutiny.

• Natalie Heller Mills — a former track teammate who spreads gossip about her

Erin is the television interviewer who conducts Shannon's expose, pressing her with a somber, truth-seeking demeanor. She closes the interview by thanking Shannon for speaking her truth.

Arc: She is the media conduit for the allegations that destroy Natalie's public image.

• Shannon — the interview subject she questions

Lucy is the producer of Natalie's epilogue televised special, trying to convince Natalie that the fake kitchen is her real house. She has to manage Natalie's confusion and the muffin mistake.

Arc: She represents the performative media apparatus around Natalie's final public appearance.

• Natalie Heller Mills — the interview subject she produces
• Reena Magliotti — the interviewer she tries to signal
• John — the crew member she scolds

Paul is the lead lawyer Doug brings in to manage the assault allegations against Natalie. He outlines the defense strategy and suggests it would help if either Caleb or Natalie had a drug problem.

Arc: He is a minor figure in the legal crisis, treating the family's survival as a public-relations problem.

• Natalie Heller Mills — his client
• Caleb — his client
• Doug Mills — his employer

David is Caleb's brother who finds Amelia passed out in Doug's dressing room at the election party and checks her wrist for a pulse. He asks whether the vomit is shit.

Arc: He appears only in the family crisis around Amelia's overdose.

• Amelia Mills — his mother, whom he finds unconscious
• Caleb — his brother
• Doug Mills — his father

George is Caleb's brother who stands in the doorway during Amelia's collapse and says Jesus Christ, then says Thank God when told the vomit is pudding.

Arc: He is a minor witness to the family's unraveling.

• Amelia Mills — his mother
• Caleb — his brother
• Doug Mills — his father

The Lord is the divine presence Natalie prays to throughout her life and who speaks through Mary in a moonlit scene, commanding Natalie to confess. After that direct encounter, the Lord falls silent, and Natalie is left to wonder whether her suffering is a test.

Arc: The Lord appears once in direct speech and then does not answer Natalie's calls, deepening her crisis of faith and sense of abandonment.

• Natalie Heller Mills — the believer who prays to and is tested by Him
• Mary Heller Mills — the vessel through whom He speaks