Under the Same Stars Summary, Characters and Themes
Under the Same Stars by Libba Bray is a haunting, multi-generational novel that bridges history, myth, and identity into a richly layered mystery.
Told through shifting timelines and locations—from a Nazi-occupied German village to Cold War Berlin to pandemic-era Brooklyn—the story follows the echo of two missing girls whose fate in 1941 reverberates across decades. Through interlinked characters navigating war, trauma, and personal discovery, the book blurs the lines between past and present, truth and myth. It’s a story about enduring love, the legacy of silence, and how storytelling can help heal historical and personal wounds.
Summary
Libba Bray’s Under the Same Stars unfolds in a non-linear, cinematic style, with its narrative jumping across eras and geographies.
The story is anchored by the mysterious disappearance of two teenage girls, Sophie and Hanna, in 1941 Germany.
The novel is structured through titled location-based sections rather than traditional chapters.
This format allows thematic threads to connect characters across time and space.
In Kleinwald, Germany, during the early years of World War II, Sophie Müller and Hanna Schmidt grow up in a small village under the increasing grip of Nazi ideology.
Their friendship is deep and complicated: Sophie is introspective and idealistic, while Hanna is bold and brash, drawn toward rebellion.
As members of the Bund Deutscher Mädel, their lives are shaped by indoctrination, family pressures, and growing dangers.
Yet they cling to a private world of forest magic and romantic imagination.
Central to this world is the Bridegroom’s Oak, a real tree said to unite lovers through letter-writing.
They use it as both a confessional and a spiritual totem.
By 1941, things unravel.
Sophie’s pacifist father is viewed with suspicion, and Hanna becomes entangled in something darker.
When they flee into the Dodauer Forest, hoping to escape the regime, their journey ends mysteriously.
Sounds of pursuit echo through the trees.
What happens next is left uncertain, but they are never seen again.
Rumors linger—did they disappear into myth, die in the forest, or survive in secret?
Decades later, in West Berlin, 1980, 16-year-old Jenny Campbell moves from Texas with her family.
Jenny is disoriented by the starkness of Cold War Berlin and struggles with body image, isolation, and identity.
She meets Martina, a local girl who introduces her to a rumor: an old woman in their building, Frau Hermann, may be a witch.
Jenny soon discovers that Frau Hermann is a trauma therapist who tells fairy tales as part of her practice.
She shares one story in particular—The Tale of the Hare and the Deer, an allegory that mirrors Sophie and Hanna’s bond.
Frau Hermann tells Jenny about the missing girls from 1941 and invites her to participate in a subtle, healing ritual: mailing a letter to the Bridegroom’s Oak.
Through her friendship with Lena, a rebellious punk girl, Jenny begins to confront her own fears and desires.
Lena nicknames her “Dallas,” and their relationship adds a layer of queer coming-of-age exploration to Jenny’s Berlin journey.
Through these connections, Jenny becomes a bridge between the silenced past and the buried trauma of wartime Germany.
Fast forward to Brooklyn, New York, in 2020, where Miles, a queer biracial teen, is stuck at home during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Living with his two moms, he feels trapped in anxiety and uncertainty.
When his ex-best friend Chloe FaceTimes him unexpectedly, their awkward reunion takes a turn.
Her grandmother—Jenny’s mother—has sent her a box of strange items before suffering a stroke.
Among the contents are cassette tapes, a scrapbook, and a clipping about Sophie and Hanna.
Miles and Chloe begin investigating the mystery together, digitally unraveling history while rebuilding their fractured friendship.
The clues point them to the Bridegroom’s Oak, the therapy center Die Eichel, and coded fairy tales tied to trauma processing.
Miles, who struggles with self-worth, finds purpose and insight through the story.
Chloe, too, is confronted with her grandmother’s hidden legacy.
Throughout the novel, the allegorical Tale of the Hare and the Deer surfaces repeatedly.
It symbolizes sacrifice, love, and memory.
Characters in each timeline interpret it through their own trauma and longing, linking the storylines thematically.
As layers are peeled back, the book reveals how unspoken histories shape personal identity.
The interwoven lives of Sophie, Hanna, Jenny, Miles, and Chloe reflect the ongoing struggle to speak the unspeakable, to remember the forgotten, and to transform sorrow into story.
In the end, Under the Same Stars suggests that history never truly dies—it lingers in letters, in myths, and in the people brave enough to listen.
Characters
Sophie Müller and Hanna Schmidt
Sophie and Hanna are at the heart of the novel’s emotional and historical narrative, their bond defined by contrasts yet underscored by a deep connection. Sophie, the more reserved and introspective of the two, comes from a pacifist family, finding solace in her belief in fate, magic, and the innocence of childhood.
Hanna, by contrast, is bold and full of life, often acting as the protective force in their friendship. Their relationship, marked by tension and vulnerability, evolves in response to the growing political and social pressures of Nazi Germany.
Hanna is influenced by the regime, embodying the qualities the Nazis celebrate—beauty, athleticism, and loyalty—while Sophie resists these pressures, clinging to her ideals of peace and escape into fantasy. Their final act of fleeing into the Dodauer Forest symbolizes both the end of their innocence and their desperate attempt to retain a piece of magic amid the horrors of war.
Tragically, their fate remains uncertain, leaving their story to linger as a poignant mystery.
Jenny Campbell
Jenny, a 16-year-old American girl in Berlin, navigates the alienation and confusion of being a teenager in a foreign, divided city. Her family’s relocation from Dallas, Texas, due to her father’s job creates a sense of displacement in her, exacerbated by her mother’s superficial concerns.
Jenny’s journey of self-discovery begins when she befriends Martina, who introduces her to the legend of the missing girls, Sophie and Hanna. Her growing interest in this mystery mirrors her personal exploration of identity and belonging.
Jenny’s connection with Frau Hermann, an elderly neighbor who uses fairy tales in trauma therapy, and later Lena, a rebellious punk girl, pushes Jenny to confront her own sense of power and agency. Her relationship with Lena also hints at emerging feelings of love and self-acceptance, as she begins to understand herself more fully amidst the Cold War’s tension and the personal struggles she faces.
Miles
Miles, a biracial, queer teenager living in Brooklyn during the pandemic, offers a contemporary lens through which the novel’s mysteries are unraveled. His chapters explore themes of isolation, mental health struggles, and personal identity in a world that feels increasingly divided.
The pandemic has confined him to his home, where he reconnects with Chloe, his ex-best friend, and together they begin to investigate the decades-old disappearance of Sophie and Hanna. Miles’s relationship with his two moms provides a stable but complex backdrop to his coming-of-age story, as he grapples with body image issues, the weight of the world’s crises, and the growing realization of his own emotional needs.
As he reconnects with Chloe, he also revisits the unresolved pain of their past friendship, using the mystery of Sophie and Hanna as a way to heal and regain a sense of connection with the world.
Chloe
Chloe, who reconnects with Miles after months of estrangement, brings an emotional depth to the modern timeline. She is motivated by the mysterious box of items from her grandmother, which ties her into the historical narrative of Sophie and Hanna.
Her curiosity, combined with the unresolved grief of losing her grandmother’s speech, drives her to reach out to Miles. As Chloe delves deeper into the mystery, she is also forced to confront the trauma of her past, especially her fractured relationship with Miles.
Her investigation into the history of Kleinwald and its residents echoes the universal themes of loss, memory, and the ways in which the past never truly disappears. Chloe’s journey mirrors the emotional legacies of the other characters, particularly the impact of familial silence and the need to reclaim lost histories.
Frau Hermann
Frau Hermann, the elderly neighbor in Berlin, is a fascinating character who bridges the gap between the past and present. As a psychologist, she uses fairy tales, including the one about the hare and the deer, as a form of therapy for trauma survivors.
Through her, the novel touches on the psychological impact of history and how trauma is carried through generations. She plays a key role in introducing Jenny to the myth of Sophie and Hanna, thus initiating the unraveling of their story.
Her role as a keeper of the past gives her a mysterious and almost mythical presence in the novel.
Themes
The Mix of History, Memory, and Myth
A central theme in Under the Same Stars is the interplay between history, memory, and myth. Libba Bray intricately weaves real historical events, particularly World War II, with personal stories, local folklore, and magical realism.
The experiences of Sophie and Hanna, two young girls in Nazi-occupied Germany, are framed within a narrative that questions how truth and myth are transmitted through generations. The forest, the Bridegroom’s Oak, and the tale of the Hare and the Deer serve as symbolic anchors for both the characters’ personal journeys and the broader historical trauma they face.
The novel suggests that the line between history and legend is porous, where folklore becomes a method of survival, memory, and processing collective grief. This is evident in the way characters from the 1980s and 2020s re-interpret the past through the lens of mythology, trying to understand the trauma of their predecessors.
Through the characters’ quests to uncover lost histories and unravel family secrets, Bray explores the way stories are reshaped over time and how they shape identity. The novel contends that the line between history and legend is porous, where folklore becomes a method of survival, memory, and processing collective grief.
Youth and the Loss of Innocence Amidst War and Political Upheaval
The theme of coming-of-age in the shadow of war runs throughout the novel, reflecting how adolescence is altered by larger historical forces. Sophie and Hanna’s experiences in the 1930s and 1940s show how the innocence of childhood can be quickly overtaken by the brutal realities of war and political ideology.
Their friendship—marked by moments of playful fantasy, such as writing letters to the Bridegroom’s Oak—becomes increasingly strained as Nazi pressures transform their world. The shift from their carefree, magical beliefs into the darker reality of betrayal, resistance, and escape mirrors the loss of innocence that many young people endure when faced with war.
In the later timelines, Jenny and Miles also experience their own forms of loss and transformation, although set in very different contexts. Jenny in 1980s Berlin grapples with cultural alienation, and Miles in 2020 Brooklyn confronts the isolation brought on by the pandemic.
Their journeys reflect how youth is shaped by the weight of history, the challenges of identity, and the trauma that lingers from past generations. The novel contends that coming of age often involves confronting difficult truths about the world around us and the erosion of innocence.
The Interplay of Love, Loyalty, and Sacrifice Across Time and Space
Love and loyalty emerge as complex, multi-faceted themes in Under the Same Stars. The deep emotional bond between Sophie and Hanna is depicted through the lens of both platonic friendship and the possibility of something more, as hinted by their interactions with the mystical Bridegroom’s Oak.
Their love for each other transcends the boundaries of friendship, entering a realm of loyalty and sacrifice as they attempt to escape the horrors of war. The tale of the Hare and the Deer acts as a metaphor for their relationship: one bound by a promise to reunite, even if the paths of sacrifice, separation, and survival make such a reunion uncertain.
This theme of sacrifice extends beyond Sophie and Hanna, appearing in the lives of later characters like Jenny and Chloe. Their evolving friendships and personal transformations also demand sacrifices of trust, love, and forgiveness.
In the modern sections, as Miles and Chloe piece together the mystery of Sophie and Hanna, the theme of loyalty is revisited. It emphasizes how the remnants of past relationships can influence present actions.
Bray uses these relationships to explore the emotional costs of war and personal loss, and how love, in its many forms, can be a force of resilience and survival.
Identity, Alienation, and the Search for Belonging in the Face of Political and Social Divides
The theme of identity, particularly how it is shaped by cultural and political forces, runs strongly through the novel. Jenny’s experience in 1980s West Berlin showcases a young woman’s struggle to find her place in a city divided by the Cold War, where the backdrop of political tension amplifies her feelings of alienation.
Jenny’s cultural shock as she moves from Texas to Berlin reflects a search for belonging, as she grapples with her relationship with her family and her own body image issues. Similarly, Miles in 2020 faces struggles with his biracial identity and queerness, as well as the challenges of maintaining connections while distanced due to the pandemic.
His search for identity is marked by the pandemic-induced isolation, creating a poignant exploration of how societal divisions—whether political, racial, or social—inform one’s sense of self. The novel paints a vivid portrait of how historical and political contexts shape personal identity and relationships.
As characters attempt to navigate their complicated lives, they confront questions about who they are and where they belong. Ultimately, they seek meaning through their connections with others, especially through shared histories and uncovering buried truths.
The Impact of Trauma and the Healing Power of Myth and Memory
At the heart of Under the Same Stars is an exploration of trauma—both personal and collective—and the ways in which individuals and communities attempt to cope with it. The experiences of Sophie and Hanna during the war represent the deep emotional and physical scars left by global conflict, but the novel suggests that these scars are not only wounds; they are also part of a larger narrative of survival.
Trauma is transmitted across generations, impacting the lives of Jenny, Chloe, and Miles as they attempt to piece together the past. The use of myth and storytelling, especially through the psychological work of Frau Hermann, is framed as a therapeutic tool that allows the characters to process trauma and find healing.
The recurring motif of the Hare and the Deer and the Bridegroom’s Oak acts as a form of emotional catharsis, providing both characters and readers with a means of confronting painful truths and finding hope amid the darkness. This theme suggests that, while trauma cannot be easily overcome, the act of remembering and retelling stories can be an essential part of healing, offering a pathway to understanding and reconciliation.
Through myth, the characters are able to make sense of their experiences and integrate them into their larger narratives of resilience. It highlights the importance of memory and storytelling as acts of survival, helping to carry the legacy of trauma and turning it into a means of healing.