Under a Painted Sky is a young adult historical novel set on the Oregon Trail during the 1849 Gold Rush. It is a debut novel by Stacey Lee, inspired by her own family history as a fourth-generation Chinese American. The novel won several prizes, including an American Library Association award. Her corpus focuses on Chinese culture and Chinese American experiences. Her other works with these themes include Outrun the Moon (2016), The Downstairs Girl (2019), Luck of the Titanic (2021) and Winston Chu vs. the Whimsies (2023).

Lee is an advocate for diversity in children’s and YA fiction, and Under a Painted Sky celebrates the diversity present in US history while honestly exploring the historical facts of the institution of slavery and anti-Chinese prejudice. Told from the first-person perspective of Samantha, the novel raises many significant historical themes that still resonate in contemporary life, such as Negotiating Gender Roles in the 19th-Century American West, Race and Racism in the Westward Expansion, and The Role of Music in Identity.

Content Warning: The novel contains racist language as well as outdated language regarding the institution of slavery. The novel also describes attempted rape, murder, child abuse, suicidal ideation, and anti-gay bias.

This guide references the Kindle version of the novel.

Plot Summary

The story opens with the protagonist and narrator, Samantha Young, having accidently killed the man who tried to rape her. Her father died earlier in the day in a fire that destroyed their general store and home. Offered refuge by her landlord, she meets the enslaved Annamae, who is a teenager of the same age. The landlord assaults Samantha, and when he accidently dies, she and Annamae flee westward. Annamae has already planned to meet a “Moses train,” a wagon that is part of the Underground Railroad (a network of people who helped enslaved people to achieve liberation), which is to take her into the free territories west of Missouri.

It is the year 1849, and Samantha and Annamae join the thousands of emigrants and gold miners traveling westward on the Oregon Trail. The two girls decide to disguise themselves as young, teenage boys. Annamae, or Andy, is going to a place called Harp Falls to meet her older brother who was sold years earlier. Samantha, or Sammy, is in pursuit of her father’s best friend, Mr. Trask, who was given her mother’s valuable jade bracelet by her father shortly before he died.

The girls encounter three cowboys from Texas: Cayenne “Cay” Pepper, his cousin, West, and their Mexican friend, Peety. The boys decide to allow the teenagers to travel with them for at least part of the Trail. While many lighthearted moments ensue, such as their fishing competition that results in the losers singing naked, or arm wrestling for a snake’s jawbone, there are many instances of danger. Every time a stranger approaches, the girls are in danger of being recognized. The Broken Hand Gang is a reportedly vicious gang of fugitives from enslavement, whose journey crisscrosses that of the cowboy group. The antagonists of the story, the MacMartin brothers, also cross paths with the cowboys on several occasions as they seek the bounty offered for the girls.

Nature also poses dangers on the trail, from the animal stampede that threatens Andy’s life to the lightning that sets fire to a tree that Sammy climbs. Sammy almost drowns in the river when her mule loses its footing. West saves her life, but she does lose her beloved violin, Lady Tin-Yin, her last physical connection to her family and heritage, and her dearest friend. West saves her life more than once, and Sammy has the chance to return the favor, nursing West when he is gouged by wild stallions. Later, everyone except West and Sammy are stricken down by cholera, and she nurses her friends back to health.

While there has been romantic tension between West and Sammy, it is during their time in Eden while their friends are suffering with cholera that West begins to realize that Sammy is the one for him. Sammy is unsure whether West earlier rejected her because he thinks she is a boy or because she is Chinese.

The climax of the story comes as the characters all converge at Harp Falls. Andy arrives first and meets with her older brother, Isaac, who turns out to be the feared leader of the Broken Hand Gang. Sammy arrives next, but the reunion is disturbed by the MacMaster brothers. Isaac grabs the brothers as he throws himself off a cliff, but one of the brothers survives. This brother viciously attacks the girls until he and Sammy fall into the river. Sammy believes herself to be drowning and has a near-death experience but awakens to find her beloved West ready to commit to a relationship with her. Peety and Andy also romantically commit to one another. While Sammy’s relationship with West remains open-ended, she decides to fulfill the dream of traveling to California and opening a music conservatory.