The daughter of Tom and Sybille Webster, Stephanie is destined as a grown woman to be the lover of protagonist Paul Christopher, whom she knows as a child in Paris. She has an ear for languages and loves to spy on adult conversations. While Paul is imprisoned in China for ten years, Stephanie graduates college, spends a year in the East Village of New York City as a member of chic revolutionary cell, and then becomes a psychotherapist. She jogs two miles early every morning. Paul begins joining her. After reading Paul's autobiographic poem, Stephanie initiates sex. She offers to bear him a child to perpetuate his remarkable family and encourages him to learn the truth about what has happened to him. They name their daughter Lori after Paul's mother.