Michael "Beau" Geste is the protagonist (and an archetype). The main narrator is his younger brother John. The three Geste brothers are portrayed as behaving according to the English upper class values of a time gone by, and "the decent thing to do" is, in fact, the "leitmotif" of the novel. The Geste brothers are orphans and have been brought up by their aunt Lady Patricia at Brandon Abbas. The rest of Beau's band are mainly Isobel and Claudia (possibly the illegitimate daughter of Lady Patricia) and Lady Patricia's relative Augustus (the caddish nephew of the absent Sir Hector Brandon). While not mentioned in "Beau Geste", the American Otis Vanbrugh appears as a friend of the Geste brothers in a sequel novel. John and Isobel are devoted to each other and it is in part to spare her any suspicion of being a thief that he takes the extreme step of joining the French Foreign Legion (following the steps of his elder brothers).