Meet 17 year old, Rose DeWitt Bukater (played by Kate Winslet).  She is a first class passenger on Titanic on her way to Philadelphia where she is to marry the rich, and older, Caledon Hockley.  Rose was a woman who "saw her whole life as if she'd already lived it, an endless parade of parties and cotillions, yachts and polo matches... outwardly, she was everything a well brought up girl should be... but inside, she was screaming."  Without meaning to, she falls in love with Jack Dawson, who sees her for who she is, and not for what everyone else thinks she should be.
 
 
 

Meet Caledon Hockley (played by Billy Zane).  He is also a first class passenger, engaged to the beautiful and much younger, Rose DeWitt Bukater.  Cal is a business man who is only interested in money.  He gives the priceless "heart of the ocean" to his fiancé to try and buy her love, but it does not work.  He is furious of the affair that Rose has with Jack Dawson, and tries everything in his power to break them up.
 
 

Meet Rose Dawson Calvert (played by Gloria Stuart).  She is the present day Rose DeWitt Bukater.  She has survived the sinking of Titanic, and tells the story of her experiences during those few days of April 10, 1912 and April 15, 1912.  Rose is 100 years old, and even though it had been 84 years, she was able to remember everything that happened on that ill-fated trip.
 
 
 

 
 
 
Meet Ruth DeWitt Bukater (played by Frances Fisher).  Ruth is Rose's mother, a high class citizen who's only interest is in maintaining the family status.  Ruth tries to assure Rose that her marriage to Cal is a proper one, despite the fact that Rose does not truly love him.  Ruth does not approve of Jack.  She "looked at him like an insect.  A dangerous insect."