Like her father, Polly has red hair. In The Arm of the Starfish she ruefully describes her figure as "twenty, twenty, twenty." In A House Like a Lotus she critiques her appearance as "too tall, too thin, not rounded enough for nearly seventeen". Intelligent and widely traveled, Polly speaks numerous languages including Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Russian and a little bit of Dutch. Despite her abilities, Polly has not yet settled on a specific career path, but may have found her calling as of the end of An Acceptable Time.