Complete listed story — includes the ending
A Game of Thrones
=== In the Seven Kingdoms ===
After the death of Lord Jon Arryn, King Robert Baratheon recruits his childhood friend Eddard "Ned" Stark, the lord of the northern castle of Winterfell, to replace Arryn as Hand of the King and betroths his son Joffrey to Ned's daughter Sansa. Shortly thereafter, Ned's son Bran discovers Robert's wife, Queen Cersei Lannister, having sex with her twin brother, Jaime. Jaime throws Bran from a tower, leaving Bran comatose and paralyzed.
Ned brings his daughters Sansa and Arya to the capital city, King's Landing, and finds that Robert is an ineffective king whose only interests are hunting, drinking, and womanizing.
At Winterfell, an assassin fails to kill Bran while he is unconscious, and Ned's wife, Catelyn, travels to King's Landing to bring word to Ned. Catelyn's childhood friend, Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, implicates Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf brother of Cersei and Jaime, in the assassination attempt. On the road home, Catelyn encounters Tyrion and arrests him for the attempt on Bran's life. In retaliation for Tyrion's abduction, his father, Lord Tywin Lannister, sends soldiers to raid the Riverlands, Catelyn's home region. Tyrion regains his freedom by demanding a trial and recruiting a mercenary named Bronn to defend him in trial by combat.
Ned investigates Jon Arryn's death and discovers that the children thought to be Robert's heirs are in fact Cersei's children by Jaime; he infers that Jon Arryn was killed to conceal this information. Before Ned can act, Cersei arranges Robert's death and installs Joffrey on the throne. Ned enlists Littlefinger's help to take Cersei and Joffrey into custody. Littlefinger betrays him and Ned is arrested. Arya escapes, but Cersei and Joffrey take Sansa as a hostage.
Ned's eldest son, Robb, marches his army south in response to his father's arrest. To secure a strategically necessary bridge crossing, Catelyn negotiates a marital alliance between Robb and the notoriously unreliable House Frey. Robb defeats a Lannister army in the Riverlands, capturing Jaime. Tywin sends Tyrion back to King's Landing to act as Joffrey's Hand of the King. Joffrey has Ned executed and Robb's followers declare independence from the Seven Kingdoms, proclaiming Robb the "King in the North".
On the Wall
The prologue of the novel introduces the Wall: a huge magical wall of ice at the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms. The Wall is defended by the Night's Watch, a great order of warriors who serve for life to defend the realm from the Others, an ancient and hostile inhuman race, and human "wildlings" who live north of the Wall.
Jon Snow, Ned's bastard son, is inspired by his uncle Benjen to join the Night's Watch. He becomes disillusioned when he discovers that its recruits are mostly convicts. Jon unites his fellow recruits against their harsh instructor and protects the cowardly but good-natured and intelligent Samwell Tarly. Jon is appointed steward to the leader of the Watch, Lord Commander Jeor Mormont. Benjen fails to return from an expedition north of the Wall; when the bodies of two men from his party are recovered, they re-animate as undead wights before being dispatched by Jon.
When word of Ned's execution reaches Jon, he attempts to join Robb against the Lannisters, but is persuaded to remain loyal to the Watch. Mormont declares his intention to march north to find Benjen, and to investigate rumors of a "King-beyond-the-Wall" uniting the wildlings.
Across the Narrow Sea
Across the eastern sea, in Essos, live the exiled children of the dead and deposed Mad King Aerys of the Seven Kingdoms: Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen.
Viserys betroths Daenerys to Khal Drogo, a warlord of the Dothraki people, in exchange for the use of Drogo's army to reclaim the throne. Daenerys receives three petrified dragon eggs as a wedding present from a wealthy merchant. Jorah Mormont, a knight exiled from Westeros and Jeor's son, joins Viserys as an adviser. Initially terrified of her new husband and his people, Daenerys eventually embraces her role as Drogo's queen. Drogo, however, shows little interest in conquering Westeros. When Viserys publicly threatens Daenerys and her unborn child, Drogo executes him by pouring molten gold on his head.
An assassin attempts to poison Daenerys, convincing Drogo to conquer Westeros. While sacking villages to fund the invasion, Drogo is badly wounded, and Daenerys commands the captive folk healer Mirri Maz Duur to save him. The healer, angered by the Dothraki raids against her people, sacrifices Daenerys's unborn child to power the spell to save Drogo's life, which restores Drogo's physical health but leaves him in a persistent vegetative state.
With Drogo incapacitated, much of his army disperses. Daenerys smothers Drogo with a pillow and has Mirri tied to Drogo's funeral pyre. She places her three dragon eggs on the pyre and enters it herself. When the fire burns out, she emerges unharmed, with three newly hatched dragons.
A Clash of Kings
A Clash of Kings depicts the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros in civil war, while the Night's Watch mounts a reconnaissance mission to investigate the mysterious people known as wildlings. Meanwhile, Daenerys Targaryen continues her plan to conquer the Seven Kingdoms.
In the Seven Kingdoms
With King Robert Baratheon dead, his purported son Joffrey sits on the Iron Throne. His reign is far from stable, as both of Robert's brothers, Renly and Stannis Baratheon, have claimed the throne as well. Two regions attempt to secede from the realm: Robb Stark is declared "King in the North", while Balon Greyjoy declares himself King of the Iron Islands. The war among these contenders is dubbed the War of Five Kings.
Stannis Baratheon, publicizing the claim that Joffrey and his siblings are bastards, claims the throne as Robert's eldest brother and therefore heir. He is supported by Melisandre, a foreign priestess of R'hllor who believes Stannis is a savior figure prophesied by her religion. Renly is supported by the wealthy Lord Mace Tyrell, and has married Mace's daughter, Margaery. Robb's mother, Catelyn Stark, meets with Renly and Stannis to discuss an alliance against Joffrey's family, the Lannisters, but she is unable to reach an agreement with them. Melisandre uses magic to send a shadow to assassinate Renly in the middle of the night, and Stannis besieges Storm's End, Renly's castle; after witnessing Renly's death, Catelyn and Renly's bodyguard, Brienne of Tarth, flee the scene.
Tyrion Lannister, Joffrey's uncle, arrives at the capital city of King's Landing as acting Hand of the King, the senior adviser to Joffrey's reign. Tyrion improves the defenses of the city while jockeying for power against his sister (Joffrey's mother), Queen Regent Cersei. Learning of Renly's death, Tyrion sends the crown's treasurer, Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, to win the Tyrells' support for Joffrey. Catelyn's daughter Sansa, a hostage of the Lannisters, is regularly abused by Joffrey. Riots break out in the city due to Joffrey's cruelty and food shortages caused by the ongoing war.
Robb wins several victories against the Lannisters, while his younger brother Bran rules the Northern stronghold of Winterfell in his absence. Against Catelyn's advice, Robb sends his friend Theon Greyjoy, Balon Greyjoy's son, to negotiate an alliance between the North and the Iron Islands. Theon betrays Robb and attacks Winterfell, taking the castle and capturing Bran and the youngest Stark, Rickon. When Bran and Rickon escape, Theon fakes their deaths. Stark supporters besiege the castle, including a force from the Starks' sometime ally House Bolton. However, the Bolton soldiers turn against both the Stark and Greyjoy forces, set Winterfell ablaze, slaughter its inhabitants, and take Theon prisoner.
Catelyn's daughter Arya is taken north, posing as a recruit for the Night's Watch. The recruits are attacked by Lannister forces, and the survivors are taken to the gigantic castle of Harrenhal, which is controlled by Joffrey's grandfather, Tywin Lannister. For saving his life during the attack, a mysterious man named Jaqen H'ghar promises to repay Arya by killing three men of her choice. Arya leverages this offer to help Northern forces retake control of Harrenhal. Jaqen gives Arya a mysterious iron coin and tells her to find him in the foreign city of Braavos if she should ever desire to learn his secrets. Arya soon escapes the castle.
Stannis's army launches an amphibious assault on King's Landing in a battle on Blackwater Bay. Under Tyrion's command, the Lannister forces use "wildfire" (a substance similar to Greek fire) to ignite the bay, and raise a massive chain across its mouth to prevent Stannis's fleet from retreating. When Stannis's troops storm the gates, it falls to Tyrion to lead the Lannister troops into battle. Stannis's victory seems to be assured until Tywin Lannister arrives with his army and the Tyrell forces, defeating Stannis. During the battle, Tyrion is attacked and injured by a knight of Joffrey's Kingsguard; by the time Tyrion regains consciousness after the battle, Tywin has assumed the post of Hand of the King.
Beyond the Wall
A scouting party from the Night's Watch learns that the wildlings are uniting under "King-beyond-the-Wall" Mance Rayder. Lord Commander of the Watch Jeor Mormont assigns Jon Snow to a group sent to investigate Rayder's aims, led by Qhorin Halfhand. Hunted by wildling warriors and facing certain defeat, Halfhand commands Jon to infiltrate the wildlings and learn their plans. To win the wildlings' trust, Jon is forced to kill Qhorin. He learns that Mance Rayder is advancing towards the Wall that separates the wildlings from the Seven Kingdoms with an army of thirty thousand wildlings, giants, and mammoths.
Across the Narrow Sea
Daenerys Targaryen travels south, accompanied by the knight Jorah Mormont, her remaining followers, and three newly hatched dragons. At the city of Qarth, Daenerys's dragons make her notorious. Xaro Xhoan Daxos, a prominent trader in Qarth, initially befriends her, but Daenerys cannot secure aid because she refuses to give away any of her dragons. As a last resort, Daenerys seeks counsel from the warlocks of Qarth, who show Daenerys many confusing visions and threaten her life, whereupon one of Daenerys's dragons burns down the warlocks' House of the Undying. An attempt to assassinate Daenerys is thwarted by a warrior named Strong Belwas and his squire, Arstan Whitebeard: agents of Daenerys's ally Illyrio Mopatis, who have come to escort her back to Pentos.
A Storm of Swords
A Storm of Swords picks up the story slightly before the end of its predecessor, A Clash of Kings. The Seven Kingdoms of Westeros are still in the grip of the War of the Five Kings, wherein Joffrey Baratheon and his uncle Stannis Baratheon compete for the Iron Throne, while Robb Stark of the North and Balon Greyjoy of the Iron Islands declare their independence. (Stannis's brother Renly Baratheon, the fifth king, has already been killed.) Meanwhile, a large host of wildlings, the tribes from beyond the Seven Kingdoms' northern border, approach the Wall that marks the border, under the leadership of Mance Rayder, the self-proclaimed "King Beyond the Wall", with only the undermanned Night's Watch in opposition. Finally, Daenerys Targaryen, the daughter of a deposed former king of Westeros and "mother" of the world's only living dragons, sails west, planning to retake her late father's throne.
In the Seven Kingdoms
==== The Riverlands ====
At her father's castle of Riverrun, Robb's mother, Catelyn Stark, releases the captive Jaime Lannister, Joffrey's 'uncle'—in actuality, his biological father—in order to secure the release of Catelyn's daughters, Sansa and Arya, who Catelyn believes are both being held hostage by the Lannisters in the capital city, King's Landing. Jaime is sent south, escorted by Brienne of Tarth. Robb's army returns to Riverrun, having vanquished the Lannister armies in the west, and Robb reveals that he has married Jeyne Westerling, violating his promise to be wed to a daughter of House Frey. These actions alienate and infuriate some of Robb's allies, weakening his military position.
Jaime and Brienne are captured by mercenaries working for Roose Bolton, who is nominally an ally of Robb but secretly planning to undermine him and become Warden of the North. The mercenary captain Vargo Hoat has Jaime's sword hand cut off. Brienne is thrown into a bear pit by Hoat, and Jaime risks his own life to save her. Bolton releases Jaime and Brienne, and they head to King's Landing.
Arya Stark, traveling in the Riverlands, is taken in by the "Brotherhood Without Banners": a band that defends the smallfolk of the Riverlands, led by Lord Beric Dondarrion and the red priest Thoros of Myr. The group captures Sandor "the Hound" Clegane, Joffrey's former bodyguard, and offers him trial by combat for his crimes. The Hound kills Beric, but Thoros resurrects him with the power of the fire god R'hllor. The Hound kidnaps Arya and flees with her, planning to ransom her.
In order to return north to defend the region against Greyjoy attacks, Robb needs the support of the Freys. The Freys propose a wedding between one of Lord Walder Frey's daughters and Catelyn's brother Edmure Tully, now lord of the Riverlands, to compensate for Robb breaking his marriage agreement. At the wedding celebration, the Boltons and Freys turn on the Starks, massacring Robb's bannermen. Robb is murdered by Roose Bolton, while Catelyn's throat is cut and her body is thrown into the river; Edmure is kept alive as a hostage. These events become known as the Red Wedding.
Arya and the Hound witness the massacre and escape. Later, the Hound is wounded in a skirmish, and Arya abandons him. She takes a ship to the Free City of Braavos, where the assassin Jaqen H'ghar had told her she could find him.
In the epilogue, a reanimated but decayed and mutilated Catelyn is leading the Brotherhood Without Banners, and she oversees the lynching of two of the Freys who were present at the Red Wedding.
King's Landing, Dragonstone, and the Eyrie
The smuggler-turned-knight Davos Seaworth attempts to assassinate Stannis's advisor Melisandre, a sorceress and priestess of R'hllor, blaming her for Stannis's defeat in his prior assault on King's Landing. Davos is imprisoned for treason, but at Melisandre's behest, Stannis releases Davos and appoints him Hand of the King. Melisandre uses the blood of Edric Storm, a bastard son of Stannis's late brother, King Robert, to curse the three rival kings. Balon Greyjoy's death is reported shortly thereafter.
King's Landing welcomes the Lannisters' new ally, House Tyrell, as liberators, and King Joffrey sets aside his betrothal to Sansa Stark in favor of Margaery Tyrell. Joffrey's grandfather, Tywin Lannister, the Hand of the King, compels Sansa to marry his dwarf son, Tyrion, to enable Lannister control of the North; Tyrion refuses to consummate the marriage against her will.
Margaery and Joffrey's wedding is held as planned, but during the wedding feast, Joffrey is poisoned and dies. Tyrion is accused of the murder by his sister Cersei, Joffrey's mother, and is arrested. Sansa escapes the castle with the help of Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, who admits to her his culpability in Joffrey's death, incriminating Margaery's grandmother Olenna as well. Littlefinger and Sansa depart King's Landing for the Eyrie, home of Catelyn's sister, Lysa Arryn.
After Balon, Robb, and Joffrey die, as Melisandre predicted, Davos has Edric smuggled to safety to prevent Melisandre and Stannis from sacrificing him for the power in his blood. Davos discovers a request by the Night's Watch for aid against Mance Rayder; Stannis prepares to execute Davos for treason but changes his mind after Davos shows Stannis the Night's Watch's plea.
The spymaster Varys and Tyrion's lover Shae testify falsely against Tyrion at his trial. Prince Oberyn Martell, of the southern region of Dorne, offers to represent Tyrion in a trial by combat against Cersei's champion, Gregor Clegane, who was responsible for the death of Oberyn's sister, Elia. Oberyn nearly wins, but is ultimately killed by Gregor, although the poison on Oberyn's spear leaves Gregor dying in agony. Tyrion is sentenced to death.
Upon returning to King's Landing, Jaime gives Brienne a sword reforged from the hereditary sword of the Stark family, and sends her to find Arya and Sansa and return them home. Jaime refuses to believe that Tyrion killed Joffrey, and helps Varys free Tyrion from prison. Jaime reveals that Tyrion's first wife, Tysha, whom Tywin had gang-raped by his garrison, was not a prostitute as Tywin told him, and genuinely loved Tyrion. Outraged, Tyrion swears revenge on Jaime, Cersei, and Tywin; during his escape, he murders both Shae and Tywin before fleeing Westeros.
At the Eyrie, Sansa is disguised as an illegitimate daughter of Littlefinger, and Littlefinger and Lysa are married. Lysa reveals that Littlefinger had convinced her to poison her late husband Jon, and to pin the blame on the Lannisters, which was the catalyst for the events of A Game of Thrones. Lysa threatens to kill Sansa, thinking she is trying to seduce Littlefinger, but Littlefinger intervenes and, after revealing that he has only ever loved Catelyn, pushes Lysa to her death.
The North
The detachment of the Night's Watch under Lord Commander Jeor Mormont is attacked by undead wights and the Others, hostile inhuman creatures from the far North. The Watch suffers heavy casualties, although the steward Samwell Tarly kills one of the Others with a blade of obsidian. Soon some of the Watch mutiny and kill Mormont, but Sam escapes with the help of a wildling girl, Gilly. Sam, Gilly, and Gilly's newborn child approach the Wall, assisted by a strange figure riding an elk, whom Sam calls Coldhands. Among the dead are most of the Watch's senior leadership.
Robb's brother Bran and his friends, having escaped the Boltons' attack on the Stark castle Winterfell, are guided north by Bran's dreams of a three-eyed crow. At the Wall, Sam guides them to Coldhands and returns to the Night's Watch's headquarters at Castle Black, having sworn to keep Bran's survival secret even from Jon Snow, Bran's bastard brother and Sam's fellow Watchman.
Jon, on a mission to infiltrate the wildlings, convinces Mance that he is a deserter from the Night's Watch, and learns that the Others are driving the wildlings south towards the Wall. Jon and his captor, Ygritte, also begin a sexual relationship. After crossing the Wall, Jon escapes the wildlings and returns to Castle Black. The approaching wildling army attacks Castle Black, but Jon takes command of the defenses and repels several assaults, during which Ygritte is slain. After that, the Watch's surviving leaders, Janos Slynt and Alliser Thorne, falsely accuse Jon of treachery and send him north of the Wall to kill Mance under the pretense of a parley. As Jon is talking with Mance in the wildling camp, Stannis's army arrives, routing the Wildlings, and Mance is imprisoned. Stannis offers to legitimize Jon and make him Lord of Winterfell in exchange for his support, but Jon decides to decline Stannis's offer. Sam successfully campaigns for the Night's Watch to elect Jon its new Lord Commander.
Slaver's Bay
Daenerys Targaryen learns that large slave armies can be bought in Astapor, one of the cities of Slaver's Bay, and buys the entire host of the warrior-eunuch Unsullied by offering one of her infant dragons in exchange. Upon payment, Daenerys orders the Unsullied and the dragon to turn on the slave traders and sack the city. With the help of her maturing dragons, she frees all the slaves of Astapor, including the Unsullied. Daenerys's army then conquers the slave city of Yunkai, but the lords of the neighboring city of Meereen antagonize Daenerys by killing child slaves and burning the land to deny her resources. Consequently, Daenerys besieges the city to no avail.
Daenerys discovers two traitors in her camp: Ser Jorah Mormont, who had spied on her for the late King Robert, and Ser Barristan Selmy, the humiliated former Lord Commander of King Robert's Kingsguard. Daenerys offers both men the chance to make amends by sneaking into Meereen to free the slaves and start an uprising. Meereen soon falls and, in retaliation for the murdered child slaves, Daenerys has the city's rulers put to death. Selmy asks for Daenerys's forgiveness and becomes Lord Commander of her Queensguard, while Jorah, who refuses to admit any wrongdoing, is banished. When Daenerys learns that the council she left to govern Astapor has been overthrown, she decides to remain in Meereen to rule it herself.
A Feast for Crows
The War of the Five Kings is slowly coming to an end. The secessionist kings Robb Stark and Balon Greyjoy are dead. One claimant to the throne, Stannis Baratheon, has gone to fight off invading wildling tribes at the northern Wall, where Robb's half-brother, Jon Snow, has become the 998th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, the order responsible for guarding the Wall. The eight-year-old King Tommen Baratheon now rules in King's Landing under the regency of his mother, Cersei Lannister. The warrior woman Brienne of Tarth has been sent by Cersei's brother (and lover) Jaime Lannister on a mission to find Robb's sister Sansa Stark. Sansa is hiding in the Vale of Arryn, protected by her mother's childhood friend Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, who has murdered his wife (and her aunt), Lysa Arryn, and named himself Protector of the Vale and guardian of Lysa's son, the eight-year-old Lord Robert Arryn.
Prologue
Pate is a young apprentice at the Citadel in Oldtown, training to become a member of the ancient order of scholar-healers known as maesters. At a stranger's request, he has stolen an important key to a depository of books and records. After turning over the stolen key and receiving the reward of a gold coin, he bites the coin and dies abruptly from poisoning.
King's Landing
Following the death of Tywin Lannister, the late Hand of the King, Queen Cersei's regency is marked by rampant cronyism, and her councils are staffed with incompetent officials and unreliable sycophants. She disregards advice from her uncle Kevan Lannister and her brother Jaime, alienating them both. Making matters worse is Cersei's increasing distrust of the powerful House Tyrell, whose alliance is essential to the stability of the Lannister regime—particularly King Tommen's fiancée, Margaery, whom Cersei believes to be the subject of a prophecy about a "younger, more beautiful queen" who will take away all that Cersei holds dear.
Her reckless management raises the kingdom's debts to the Iron Bank of Braavos and the Faith of the Seven. When Cersei defaults the debt owed to the Iron Bank, the Bank's financial retaliation nearly cripples the economy of Westeros. To settle the crown's debts to the Faith, Cersei permits the restoration of its military order, the Faith Militant, ignoring the danger of a re-armed Faith. A scheme to falsely have the Faith put Margaery on trial for adultery backfires when the religious leadership imprisons Cersei herself on similar—and correct—charges.
Riverlands
Cersei dispatches Jaime to the Riverlands to put down the remnants of the late Robb Stark's rebellion. He unsuccessfully negotiates with Robb's great-uncle Brynden "the Blackfish" Tully to surrender the castle of Riverrun in exchange for his nephew Edmure's life, but he then convinces Edmure to surrender to save the lives of his men and his unborn child. Although the siege ends bloodlessly, Brynden escapes. Jaime then receives word that Cersei, who has been arrested by the Faith, wants him to defend her in a trial by combat, but Jaime burns her letter and abandons her to her fate.
Brienne's quest takes her across the Riverlands, where she witnesses the devastation of war. She acquires Podrick Payne, the former squire of Jaime's brother Tyrion, and Ser Hyle Hunt, a knight who had once mocked her ugliness, as traveling companions. She learns that Sansa's sister, Arya Stark, has actually survived and escaped King's Landing, and the feared warrior Sandor "the Hound" Clegane is reportedly dead, but someone wearing his helmet has massacred the town of Saltpans. She later kills the culprit, Rorge, but is gravely injured and mutilated by his companion, Biter. Eventually, she is captured by the Brotherhood Without Banners, which was once devoted to protecting the smallfolk of the Riverlands but is now commanded by the magically resurrected Catelyn Stark, Sansa's mother. The undead and vengeful Catelyn, who has taken the name Lady Stoneheart, sentences Brienne to death for consorting with the Lannisters but offers to spare her and her companions if she agrees to kill Jaime.
The Vale
In the remote castle of the Eyrie, Sansa poses as Littlefinger's illegitimate daughter Alayne Stone, befriending the young Lord Robert Arryn, managing the household, and receiving informal training in politics. During this time, Littlefinger appears to be carefully manipulating Robert's bannermen to secure his status as Lord Protector of the Vale. He eventually reveals that he plans to betroth Sansa to Harrold Hardyng, the next heir in line to the Vale; when the sickly Robert dies, Littlefinger intends to reveal Sansa's identity and claim her family stronghold of Winterfell in her name.
Iron Islands
On the Iron Islands, the late Balon Greyjoy's eldest surviving brother, Euron, returns from exile to claim the throne. To prevent this, his younger brother Aeron, a priest, calls a Kingsmoot to choose the successor. Although Euron's claim is challenged by his other younger brother Victarion and Balon's daughter, Asha, Euron is ultimately chosen as king for his vow to conquer Westeros and control Daenerys Targaryen's dragons with an enchanted horn he has. Under Euron's leadership, the Iron Fleet attacks the Reach, threatening House Tyrell's seat at Highgarden. Euron sends Victarion east to propose marriage to Daenerys on his behalf—to thus gain a claim to the Iron Throne—but Victarion secretly decides to woo her for himself instead.
Dorne
In the southern region of Dorne, Prince Doran Martell is confronted by three of the Sand Snakes—his brother Oberyn's bastard daughters—who want vengeance for the death of their father. Because they incite the commonfolk, Doran has his guard captain, Areo Hotah, arrest and imprison them in the palace.
A bold attempt by Doran's daughter Arianne to create a war of succession by crowning Tommen's sister, Myrcella Baratheon, as queen of Westeros is thwarted. In the confusion, one of Arianne's co-conspirators, Ser Gerold "Darkstar" Dayne, attempts to kill Myrcella and disfigures her face. Myrcella's guardian, Ser Arys Oakheart, is killed by Areo Hotah. This strains Dorne's new alliance with the Iron Throne. Doran later reveals to his daughter that he has a much grander plan to bring down the Lannisters, and her brother Quentyn has gone east to bring back "Fire and Blood" through an alliance with Daenerys.
Braavos
Arriving in the foreign city of Braavos, Arya Stark finds her way to the cult of face-changing assassins known as the Faceless Men. Accepted as a novice, Arya is taught to abandon her previous identity, but her true identity asserts itself in the form of wolf dreams.
Meanwhile, the Night's Watch lord commander Jon Snow has ordered Samwell Tarly to sail to the Citadel in Oldtown to train as a maester and warn the Seven Kingdoms about the return of the legendary hostile beings known as the Others. Sam is accompanied by the elderly Maester Aemon, the wildling girl Gilly, Gilly's newborn baby, and another Night's Watch member, Dareon. After the voyage begins, Sam realizes the child is actually the son of the wildling leader Mance Rayder, swapped with Gilly's real son. The party becomes temporarily stranded in Braavos when Aemon becomes sick, and Daeron absconds with their money. After learning that Daenerys possesses dragons, Aemon concludes that she is destined to fulfill a prophecy and that he needs to assist her. Shortly after the party finally leaves Braavos, Aemon dies at the age of 102. After Sam's party leaves, Arya chances upon Daeron and murders him for deserting the Night's Watch. As punishment for the unauthorized killing, the Faceless Men then feed her a potion that causes blindness.
Oldtown
At the end of the novel, Sam arrives at the Citadel and is introduced to Archmaester Marwyn. After learning about Aemon's death and the dragon prophecy about Daenerys, Marwyn leaves to find Daenerys. Before he leaves, he reveals to Sam that there is a maester conspiracy to suppress magic and that the Citadel orchestrated the downfall of the dragons centuries ago. He warns him not to talk about prophecy or dragons because the maesters will probably poison him. Sam also meets an acolyte who looks like and is named Pate.
A Dance with Dragons
=== The Wall and beyond ===
Stannis Baratheon, a claimant to the Iron Throne of Westeros, occupies the Wall at the realm's northern border, having repelled an invasion of wildlings from the northern wilderness. He executes who he believes to be Mance Rayder, the leader of the wildlings, for refusing to submit to him and marches his army south to seek support in his bid for the throne.
Jon Snow, the newly elected Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, which defends the Wall, prepares the defense of the realm against the Others, a hostile race of inhuman creatures from the far north. Jon negotiates with the wildling leader Tormund Giantsbane to let Tormund's men pass in exchange for their assistance. This results in a fragile peace and creates unrest among the Watch, as they have long considered the wildlings their enemies.
Jon receives word that his half-sister, Arya Stark, is to be married to their family's enemy Ramsay Bolton, while Stannis's advisor, the sorceress Melisandre, warns that she is in danger. Mance, thanks to Melisandre's magic, is alive, and he is sent to the Starks' ancestral castle, Winterfell, now occupied by the Boltons, to rescue Arya. However, the girl in Melisandre's visions turns out to be Alys Karstark, a young noblewoman fleeing to escape her treacherous uncle. To protect Alys and integrate the wildlings into Westerosi society, Jon arranges for Alys to marry Sigorn of Thenn, a wildling leader.
Jon receives a taunting letter, seemingly authored by Ramsay Bolton, who claims to have crushed Stannis's army at Winterfell. Threatening an attack, Ramsay demands that Jon send him Stannis's wife, daughter, and other hostages, in addition to Arya and Jon's foster-brother, Theon Greyjoy, the latter two of whom Jon has not seen in years. Jon decides to march on Ramsay himself and asks for volunteers to accompany him. His officers view Jon's intent to march on Ramsay as a betrayal of the Watch's neutrality, and he is stabbed in a mutiny.
Meanwhile, Jon's paraplegic half-brother, Bran Stark, traveling north of the Wall, is led to the last surviving Children of the Forest, the non-human natives of Westeros. They introduce Bran and his companions to the "last greenseer", a man intertwined with the roots of a weirwood tree (hinted to be Brynden Rivers, a character introduced in the Tales of Dunk and Egg). He helps Bran learn clairvoyant "greensight", enabling Bran to witness the past and present through the eyes of the weirwood trees that grow throughout the North.
Across the Narrow Sea
==== In the Free Cities ====
Having killed his father Tywin, the Hand of the King, the dwarf Tyrion Lannister is smuggled out of Westeros to the city of Pentos by the spymaster Varys, where he is sheltered by the merchant Illyrio Mopatis. Tyrion is sent south with a party ostensibly to aid the exiled princess Daenerys Targaryen, who controls the only living dragons, in claiming the Iron Throne. Tyrion learns that Varys and Illyrio have hidden the presumed-dead Aegon VI Targaryen, son of Daenerys's late brother Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, and intend to install him as the king of Westeros with Daenerys's aid. Tyrion persuades Aegon to invade Westeros immediately, without waiting for Daenerys. Soon afterward, Tyrion is kidnapped by Daenerys's disgraced advisor, Jorah Mormont, who intends to deliver him to Daenerys in order to regain her favor.
In the Free City of Braavos, Arya is an acolyte of the guild of assassins known as the Faceless Men. When they temporarily afflict her with blindness, Arya develops her sense of hearing and realizes that she can "see" through the eyes of cats the same way she could with her pet direwolf, Nymeria. After her sight is restored, Arya is tasked with assassinating a corrupt merchant while magically disguised with another girl's face. After doing so, Arya is declared an apprentice of the Faceless Men, to be sent to another assassin to continue her training.
Slaver's Bay
Daenerys has conquered the city of Meereen and banned slavery, but struggles to maintain peace among various factions within the city, including the Sons of the Harpy, a violent Meereenese resistance group, and the neighboring city of Yunkai.
Daenerys's dragons have become increasingly dangerous, and she reluctantly confines them in a dungeon for the safety of her people. Drogon, the largest, evades capture and flies off. Despite her sexual relationship with the mercenary Daario Naharis, Daenerys marries the Meereenese nobleman Hizdahr zo Loraq to secure an alliance to appease the Sons of the Harpy.
Quentyn Martell, the son of the prince of Dorne in southern Westeros, arrives in Meereen in hopes of renewing the alliance between Daenerys's family and his, but he is unable to maintain her attention. Jorah and Tyrion are shipwrecked, kidnapped, and sold to a Yunkish slave trader. They escape from the Yunkish army besieging Meereen and join the Second Sons mercenary group, with Tyrion intending to secure their support for Daenerys. Meanwhile, another Westerosi, Victarion Greyjoy, sails for Meereen, intending to marry Daenerys and use her dragons to overthrow his brother, the king of the Ironborn.
At Hizdahr's insistence, Daenerys reopens the city's "fighting pits" for gladiatorial combat, but the noise and carnage attract Drogon. In the resulting chaos, Daenerys climbs onto Drogon to calm him, but he flies away with her. Hizdahr is implicated in an attempt to poison Daenerys. Her advisor, Barristan Selmy, takes part in a plot to remove Hizdahr from power, and the Sons of the Harpy resume their killing. Barristan prepares for battle with the armies outside Meereen. Quentyn attempts to prove his worth by riding one of the remaining dragons but is killed, and both dragons are released.
Drogon flies Daenerys to the Dothraki Sea, the grassland controlled by the nomadic Dothraki people. After several days, Daenerys encounters a Dothraki horde led by Khal Jhaqo.
In the Seven Kingdoms
==== The North ====
In the North, Roose Bolton has overthrown House Stark and assumed authority as the Warden of the North after allying with House Frey. Much of the region is occupied by Ironborn invaders. Following Jon Snow's advice, Stannis wins the support of Northern mountain clans by pledging to recapture Winterfell and fighting off the Ironborn. With their support, Stannis captures Asha Greyjoy, Victarion's niece, and marches his forces toward Winterfell to attack the Boltons, but his advance is halted by heavy snowstorms.
Stannis's advisor, Davos Seaworth, is sent to win the support of the wealthy lord Wyman Manderly, who pretends to execute Davos to curry favor with the Lannister regime that controls the Iron Throne. In a secret meeting, Manderly tells Davos that he and other Northern vassals intend to feign submission to the Boltons and Lannisters while plotting the restoration of Stark rule and revenge for Robb Stark's death. Revealing to Davos that young Rickon Stark is in hiding on the remote island of Skagos, Manderly pledges to support Stannis if Davos can retrieve Rickon and unite the Starks' supporters around him.
Theon Greyjoy is a prisoner of the Boltons and is mutilated and tortured by Roose's sadistic son Ramsay, who renames Theon "Reek". To cement his rule over the North, Roose has Ramsay supposedly married to Arya Stark, but the girl is actually Jeyne Poole, a friend of Arya's sister, Sansa; Jeyne is forced to impersonate Arya and is physically and sexually tormented by Ramsay. Disguised, Mance Rayder arrives at Winterfell and enlists Theon to help him free the false Arya. Meanwhile, tensions are high in Winterfell, with Manderly suspected of murdering three Freys who came to White Harbor, and other deaths happening around Winterfell. Theon and Jeyne escape, leaping from the castle wall into the snow to be captured by Stannis's forces.
The South
Jaime Lannister, the uncle (and, secretly, father) of the young king Tommen Baratheon, negotiates the surrender of the last of the late Robb Stark's allies, nominally putting an end to the Stark–Lannister war in the Riverlands. Brienne of Tarth, whom Jaime had sent to search for Sansa Stark, finds Jaime and tells him Sansa is in danger; he follows after her.
After Tyrion convinces Aegon to attack Westeros, Aegon and his forces capture several castles in the Stormlands with little resistance. Meanwhile, Aegon's foster father, Jon Connington, is secretly succumbing to greyscale, a deadly and contagious disease.
Doran Martell, the prince of Dorne, sends two of his nieces north to the capital city of King's Landing to infiltrate the Faith and the government and work in Dorne's interests.
Cersei Lannister, Tommen's mother and queen regent, has been arrested by the Faith on charges of fornication and conspiracy. To gain release from her imprisonment, she confesses to several of the lesser charges against her, but does not confess to having murdered her husband, King Robert Baratheon, nor that her children are the product of incest. As a condition of her release, Cersei is forced to humiliate herself by walking naked across the city. Meanwhile, Cersei's ally, the ex-maester Qyburn, has created "Ser Robert Strong", an eight-foot-tall figure encased in armor, to be an unbeatable champion in Cersei's upcoming trial by combat.
Having taken control of the government, Cersei's uncle, Kevan Lannister, and Grand Maester Pycelle attempt to undo the damage caused by Cersei's misrule. However, Varys reappears and fatally wounds both Kevan and Pycelle, revealing that he has been plotting for years for the Lannisters to destroy themselves so that Aegon Targaryen can take the throne, having been raised to be an ideal ruler. The book ends with Varys sending his child spies to finish Kevan off.
Extras
In addition to the maps published in previous books, the book includes a new map of the previously unmapped area of the Free Cities on the eastern continent. Like the previous four volumes in the Ice and Fire series, the book includes an appendix with a complete list of characters.
=== In the Seven Kingdoms ===
After the death of Lord Jon Arryn, King Robert Baratheon recruits his childhood friend Eddard "Ned" Stark, the lord of the northern castle of Winterfell, to replace Arryn as Hand of the King and betroths his son Joffrey to Ned's daughter Sansa. Shortly thereafter, Ned's son Bran discovers Robert's wife, Queen Cersei Lannister, having sex with her twin brother, Jaime. Jaime throws Bran from a tower, leaving Bran comatose and paralyzed.
Ned brings his daughters Sansa and Arya to the capital city, King's Landing, and finds that Robert is an ineffective king whose only interests are hunting, drinking, and womanizing.
At Winterfell, an assassin fails to kill Bran while he is unconscious, and Ned's wife, Catelyn, travels to King's Landing to bring word to Ned. Catelyn's childhood friend, Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, implicates Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf brother of Cersei and Jaime, in the assassination attempt. On the road home, Catelyn encounters Tyrion and arrests him for the attempt on Bran's life. In retaliation for Tyrion's abduction, his father, Lord Tywin Lannister, sends soldiers to raid the Riverlands, Catelyn's home region. Tyrion regains his freedom by demanding a trial and recruiting a mercenary named Bronn to defend him in trial by combat.
Ned investigates Jon Arryn's death and discovers that the children thought to be Robert's heirs are in fact Cersei's children by Jaime; he infers that Jon Arryn was killed to conceal this information. Before Ned can act, Cersei arranges Robert's death and installs Joffrey on the throne. Ned enlists Littlefinger's help to take Cersei and Joffrey into custody. Littlefinger betrays him and Ned is arrested. Arya escapes, but Cersei and Joffrey take Sansa as a hostage.
Ned's eldest son, Robb, marches his army south in response to his father's arrest. To secure a strategically necessary bridge crossing, Catelyn negotiates a marital alliance between Robb and the notoriously unreliable House Frey. Robb defeats a Lannister army in the Riverlands, capturing Jaime. Tywin sends Tyrion back to King's Landing to act as Joffrey's Hand of the King. Joffrey has Ned executed and Robb's followers declare independence from the Seven Kingdoms, proclaiming Robb the "King in the North".
On the Wall
The prologue of the novel introduces the Wall: a huge magical wall of ice at the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms. The Wall is defended by the Night's Watch, a great order of warriors who serve for life to defend the realm from the Others, an ancient and hostile inhuman race, and human "wildlings" who live north of the Wall.
Jon Snow, Ned's bastard son, is inspired by his uncle Benjen to join the Night's Watch. He becomes disillusioned when he discovers that its recruits are mostly convicts. Jon unites his fellow recruits against their harsh instructor and protects the cowardly but good-natured and intelligent Samwell Tarly. Jon is appointed steward to the leader of the Watch, Lord Commander Jeor Mormont. Benjen fails to return from an expedition north of the Wall; when the bodies of two men from his party are recovered, they re-animate as undead wights before being dispatched by Jon.
When word of Ned's execution reaches Jon, he attempts to join Robb against the Lannisters, but is persuaded to remain loyal to the Watch. Mormont declares his intention to march north to find Benjen, and to investigate rumors of a "King-beyond-the-Wall" uniting the wildlings.
Across the Narrow Sea
Across the eastern sea, in Essos, live the exiled children of the dead and deposed Mad King Aerys of the Seven Kingdoms: Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen.
Viserys betroths Daenerys to Khal Drogo, a warlord of the Dothraki people, in exchange for the use of Drogo's army to reclaim the throne. Daenerys receives three petrified dragon eggs as a wedding present from a wealthy merchant. Jorah Mormont, a knight exiled from Westeros and Jeor's son, joins Viserys as an adviser. Initially terrified of her new husband and his people, Daenerys eventually embraces her role as Drogo's queen. Drogo, however, shows little interest in conquering Westeros. When Viserys publicly threatens Daenerys and her unborn child, Drogo executes him by pouring molten gold on his head.
An assassin attempts to poison Daenerys, convincing Drogo to conquer Westeros. While sacking villages to fund the invasion, Drogo is badly wounded, and Daenerys commands the captive folk healer Mirri Maz Duur to save him. The healer, angered by the Dothraki raids against her people, sacrifices Daenerys's unborn child to power the spell to save Drogo's life, which restores Drogo's physical health but leaves him in a persistent vegetative state.
With Drogo incapacitated, much of his army disperses. Daenerys smothers Drogo with a pillow and has Mirri tied to Drogo's funeral pyre. She places her three dragon eggs on the pyre and enters it herself. When the fire burns out, she emerges unharmed, with three newly hatched dragons.
A Clash of Kings
A Clash of Kings depicts the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros in civil war, while the Night's Watch mounts a reconnaissance mission to investigate the mysterious people known as wildlings. Meanwhile, Daenerys Targaryen continues her plan to conquer the Seven Kingdoms.
In the Seven Kingdoms
With King Robert Baratheon dead, his purported son Joffrey sits on the Iron Throne. His reign is far from stable, as both of Robert's brothers, Renly and Stannis Baratheon, have claimed the throne as well. Two regions attempt to secede from the realm: Robb Stark is declared "King in the North", while Balon Greyjoy declares himself King of the Iron Islands. The war among these contenders is dubbed the War of Five Kings.
Stannis Baratheon, publicizing the claim that Joffrey and his siblings are bastards, claims the throne as Robert's eldest brother and therefore heir. He is supported by Melisandre, a foreign priestess of R'hllor who believes Stannis is a savior figure prophesied by her religion. Renly is supported by the wealthy Lord Mace Tyrell, and has married Mace's daughter, Margaery. Robb's mother, Catelyn Stark, meets with Renly and Stannis to discuss an alliance against Joffrey's family, the Lannisters, but she is unable to reach an agreement with them. Melisandre uses magic to send a shadow to assassinate Renly in the middle of the night, and Stannis besieges Storm's End, Renly's castle; after witnessing Renly's death, Catelyn and Renly's bodyguard, Brienne of Tarth, flee the scene.
Tyrion Lannister, Joffrey's uncle, arrives at the capital city of King's Landing as acting Hand of the King, the senior adviser to Joffrey's reign. Tyrion improves the defenses of the city while jockeying for power against his sister (Joffrey's mother), Queen Regent Cersei. Learning of Renly's death, Tyrion sends the crown's treasurer, Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, to win the Tyrells' support for Joffrey. Catelyn's daughter Sansa, a hostage of the Lannisters, is regularly abused by Joffrey. Riots break out in the city due to Joffrey's cruelty and food shortages caused by the ongoing war.
Robb wins several victories against the Lannisters, while his younger brother Bran rules the Northern stronghold of Winterfell in his absence. Against Catelyn's advice, Robb sends his friend Theon Greyjoy, Balon Greyjoy's son, to negotiate an alliance between the North and the Iron Islands. Theon betrays Robb and attacks Winterfell, taking the castle and capturing Bran and the youngest Stark, Rickon. When Bran and Rickon escape, Theon fakes their deaths. Stark supporters besiege the castle, including a force from the Starks' sometime ally House Bolton. However, the Bolton soldiers turn against both the Stark and Greyjoy forces, set Winterfell ablaze, slaughter its inhabitants, and take Theon prisoner.
Catelyn's daughter Arya is taken north, posing as a recruit for the Night's Watch. The recruits are attacked by Lannister forces, and the survivors are taken to the gigantic castle of Harrenhal, which is controlled by Joffrey's grandfather, Tywin Lannister. For saving his life during the attack, a mysterious man named Jaqen H'ghar promises to repay Arya by killing three men of her choice. Arya leverages this offer to help Northern forces retake control of Harrenhal. Jaqen gives Arya a mysterious iron coin and tells her to find him in the foreign city of Braavos if she should ever desire to learn his secrets. Arya soon escapes the castle.
Stannis's army launches an amphibious assault on King's Landing in a battle on Blackwater Bay. Under Tyrion's command, the Lannister forces use "wildfire" (a substance similar to Greek fire) to ignite the bay, and raise a massive chain across its mouth to prevent Stannis's fleet from retreating. When Stannis's troops storm the gates, it falls to Tyrion to lead the Lannister troops into battle. Stannis's victory seems to be assured until Tywin Lannister arrives with his army and the Tyrell forces, defeating Stannis. During the battle, Tyrion is attacked and injured by a knight of Joffrey's Kingsguard; by the time Tyrion regains consciousness after the battle, Tywin has assumed the post of Hand of the King.
Beyond the Wall
A scouting party from the Night's Watch learns that the wildlings are uniting under "King-beyond-the-Wall" Mance Rayder. Lord Commander of the Watch Jeor Mormont assigns Jon Snow to a group sent to investigate Rayder's aims, led by Qhorin Halfhand. Hunted by wildling warriors and facing certain defeat, Halfhand commands Jon to infiltrate the wildlings and learn their plans. To win the wildlings' trust, Jon is forced to kill Qhorin. He learns that Mance Rayder is advancing towards the Wall that separates the wildlings from the Seven Kingdoms with an army of thirty thousand wildlings, giants, and mammoths.
Across the Narrow Sea
Daenerys Targaryen travels south, accompanied by the knight Jorah Mormont, her remaining followers, and three newly hatched dragons. At the city of Qarth, Daenerys's dragons make her notorious. Xaro Xhoan Daxos, a prominent trader in Qarth, initially befriends her, but Daenerys cannot secure aid because she refuses to give away any of her dragons. As a last resort, Daenerys seeks counsel from the warlocks of Qarth, who show Daenerys many confusing visions and threaten her life, whereupon one of Daenerys's dragons burns down the warlocks' House of the Undying. An attempt to assassinate Daenerys is thwarted by a warrior named Strong Belwas and his squire, Arstan Whitebeard: agents of Daenerys's ally Illyrio Mopatis, who have come to escort her back to Pentos.
A Storm of Swords
A Storm of Swords picks up the story slightly before the end of its predecessor, A Clash of Kings. The Seven Kingdoms of Westeros are still in the grip of the War of the Five Kings, wherein Joffrey Baratheon and his uncle Stannis Baratheon compete for the Iron Throne, while Robb Stark of the North and Balon Greyjoy of the Iron Islands declare their independence. (Stannis's brother Renly Baratheon, the fifth king, has already been killed.) Meanwhile, a large host of wildlings, the tribes from beyond the Seven Kingdoms' northern border, approach the Wall that marks the border, under the leadership of Mance Rayder, the self-proclaimed "King Beyond the Wall", with only the undermanned Night's Watch in opposition. Finally, Daenerys Targaryen, the daughter of a deposed former king of Westeros and "mother" of the world's only living dragons, sails west, planning to retake her late father's throne.
In the Seven Kingdoms
==== The Riverlands ====
At her father's castle of Riverrun, Robb's mother, Catelyn Stark, releases the captive Jaime Lannister, Joffrey's 'uncle'—in actuality, his biological father—in order to secure the release of Catelyn's daughters, Sansa and Arya, who Catelyn believes are both being held hostage by the Lannisters in the capital city, King's Landing. Jaime is sent south, escorted by Brienne of Tarth. Robb's army returns to Riverrun, having vanquished the Lannister armies in the west, and Robb reveals that he has married Jeyne Westerling, violating his promise to be wed to a daughter of House Frey. These actions alienate and infuriate some of Robb's allies, weakening his military position.
Jaime and Brienne are captured by mercenaries working for Roose Bolton, who is nominally an ally of Robb but secretly planning to undermine him and become Warden of the North. The mercenary captain Vargo Hoat has Jaime's sword hand cut off. Brienne is thrown into a bear pit by Hoat, and Jaime risks his own life to save her. Bolton releases Jaime and Brienne, and they head to King's Landing.
Arya Stark, traveling in the Riverlands, is taken in by the "Brotherhood Without Banners": a band that defends the smallfolk of the Riverlands, led by Lord Beric Dondarrion and the red priest Thoros of Myr. The group captures Sandor "the Hound" Clegane, Joffrey's former bodyguard, and offers him trial by combat for his crimes. The Hound kills Beric, but Thoros resurrects him with the power of the fire god R'hllor. The Hound kidnaps Arya and flees with her, planning to ransom her.
In order to return north to defend the region against Greyjoy attacks, Robb needs the support of the Freys. The Freys propose a wedding between one of Lord Walder Frey's daughters and Catelyn's brother Edmure Tully, now lord of the Riverlands, to compensate for Robb breaking his marriage agreement. At the wedding celebration, the Boltons and Freys turn on the Starks, massacring Robb's bannermen. Robb is murdered by Roose Bolton, while Catelyn's throat is cut and her body is thrown into the river; Edmure is kept alive as a hostage. These events become known as the Red Wedding.
Arya and the Hound witness the massacre and escape. Later, the Hound is wounded in a skirmish, and Arya abandons him. She takes a ship to the Free City of Braavos, where the assassin Jaqen H'ghar had told her she could find him.
In the epilogue, a reanimated but decayed and mutilated Catelyn is leading the Brotherhood Without Banners, and she oversees the lynching of two of the Freys who were present at the Red Wedding.
King's Landing, Dragonstone, and the Eyrie
The smuggler-turned-knight Davos Seaworth attempts to assassinate Stannis's advisor Melisandre, a sorceress and priestess of R'hllor, blaming her for Stannis's defeat in his prior assault on King's Landing. Davos is imprisoned for treason, but at Melisandre's behest, Stannis releases Davos and appoints him Hand of the King. Melisandre uses the blood of Edric Storm, a bastard son of Stannis's late brother, King Robert, to curse the three rival kings. Balon Greyjoy's death is reported shortly thereafter.
King's Landing welcomes the Lannisters' new ally, House Tyrell, as liberators, and King Joffrey sets aside his betrothal to Sansa Stark in favor of Margaery Tyrell. Joffrey's grandfather, Tywin Lannister, the Hand of the King, compels Sansa to marry his dwarf son, Tyrion, to enable Lannister control of the North; Tyrion refuses to consummate the marriage against her will.
Margaery and Joffrey's wedding is held as planned, but during the wedding feast, Joffrey is poisoned and dies. Tyrion is accused of the murder by his sister Cersei, Joffrey's mother, and is arrested. Sansa escapes the castle with the help of Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, who admits to her his culpability in Joffrey's death, incriminating Margaery's grandmother Olenna as well. Littlefinger and Sansa depart King's Landing for the Eyrie, home of Catelyn's sister, Lysa Arryn.
After Balon, Robb, and Joffrey die, as Melisandre predicted, Davos has Edric smuggled to safety to prevent Melisandre and Stannis from sacrificing him for the power in his blood. Davos discovers a request by the Night's Watch for aid against Mance Rayder; Stannis prepares to execute Davos for treason but changes his mind after Davos shows Stannis the Night's Watch's plea.
The spymaster Varys and Tyrion's lover Shae testify falsely against Tyrion at his trial. Prince Oberyn Martell, of the southern region of Dorne, offers to represent Tyrion in a trial by combat against Cersei's champion, Gregor Clegane, who was responsible for the death of Oberyn's sister, Elia. Oberyn nearly wins, but is ultimately killed by Gregor, although the poison on Oberyn's spear leaves Gregor dying in agony. Tyrion is sentenced to death.
Upon returning to King's Landing, Jaime gives Brienne a sword reforged from the hereditary sword of the Stark family, and sends her to find Arya and Sansa and return them home. Jaime refuses to believe that Tyrion killed Joffrey, and helps Varys free Tyrion from prison. Jaime reveals that Tyrion's first wife, Tysha, whom Tywin had gang-raped by his garrison, was not a prostitute as Tywin told him, and genuinely loved Tyrion. Outraged, Tyrion swears revenge on Jaime, Cersei, and Tywin; during his escape, he murders both Shae and Tywin before fleeing Westeros.
At the Eyrie, Sansa is disguised as an illegitimate daughter of Littlefinger, and Littlefinger and Lysa are married. Lysa reveals that Littlefinger had convinced her to poison her late husband Jon, and to pin the blame on the Lannisters, which was the catalyst for the events of A Game of Thrones. Lysa threatens to kill Sansa, thinking she is trying to seduce Littlefinger, but Littlefinger intervenes and, after revealing that he has only ever loved Catelyn, pushes Lysa to her death.
The North
The detachment of the Night's Watch under Lord Commander Jeor Mormont is attacked by undead wights and the Others, hostile inhuman creatures from the far North. The Watch suffers heavy casualties, although the steward Samwell Tarly kills one of the Others with a blade of obsidian. Soon some of the Watch mutiny and kill Mormont, but Sam escapes with the help of a wildling girl, Gilly. Sam, Gilly, and Gilly's newborn child approach the Wall, assisted by a strange figure riding an elk, whom Sam calls Coldhands. Among the dead are most of the Watch's senior leadership.
Robb's brother Bran and his friends, having escaped the Boltons' attack on the Stark castle Winterfell, are guided north by Bran's dreams of a three-eyed crow. At the Wall, Sam guides them to Coldhands and returns to the Night's Watch's headquarters at Castle Black, having sworn to keep Bran's survival secret even from Jon Snow, Bran's bastard brother and Sam's fellow Watchman.
Jon, on a mission to infiltrate the wildlings, convinces Mance that he is a deserter from the Night's Watch, and learns that the Others are driving the wildlings south towards the Wall. Jon and his captor, Ygritte, also begin a sexual relationship. After crossing the Wall, Jon escapes the wildlings and returns to Castle Black. The approaching wildling army attacks Castle Black, but Jon takes command of the defenses and repels several assaults, during which Ygritte is slain. After that, the Watch's surviving leaders, Janos Slynt and Alliser Thorne, falsely accuse Jon of treachery and send him north of the Wall to kill Mance under the pretense of a parley. As Jon is talking with Mance in the wildling camp, Stannis's army arrives, routing the Wildlings, and Mance is imprisoned. Stannis offers to legitimize Jon and make him Lord of Winterfell in exchange for his support, but Jon decides to decline Stannis's offer. Sam successfully campaigns for the Night's Watch to elect Jon its new Lord Commander.
Slaver's Bay
Daenerys Targaryen learns that large slave armies can be bought in Astapor, one of the cities of Slaver's Bay, and buys the entire host of the warrior-eunuch Unsullied by offering one of her infant dragons in exchange. Upon payment, Daenerys orders the Unsullied and the dragon to turn on the slave traders and sack the city. With the help of her maturing dragons, she frees all the slaves of Astapor, including the Unsullied. Daenerys's army then conquers the slave city of Yunkai, but the lords of the neighboring city of Meereen antagonize Daenerys by killing child slaves and burning the land to deny her resources. Consequently, Daenerys besieges the city to no avail.
Daenerys discovers two traitors in her camp: Ser Jorah Mormont, who had spied on her for the late King Robert, and Ser Barristan Selmy, the humiliated former Lord Commander of King Robert's Kingsguard. Daenerys offers both men the chance to make amends by sneaking into Meereen to free the slaves and start an uprising. Meereen soon falls and, in retaliation for the murdered child slaves, Daenerys has the city's rulers put to death. Selmy asks for Daenerys's forgiveness and becomes Lord Commander of her Queensguard, while Jorah, who refuses to admit any wrongdoing, is banished. When Daenerys learns that the council she left to govern Astapor has been overthrown, she decides to remain in Meereen to rule it herself.
A Feast for Crows
The War of the Five Kings is slowly coming to an end. The secessionist kings Robb Stark and Balon Greyjoy are dead. One claimant to the throne, Stannis Baratheon, has gone to fight off invading wildling tribes at the northern Wall, where Robb's half-brother, Jon Snow, has become the 998th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, the order responsible for guarding the Wall. The eight-year-old King Tommen Baratheon now rules in King's Landing under the regency of his mother, Cersei Lannister. The warrior woman Brienne of Tarth has been sent by Cersei's brother (and lover) Jaime Lannister on a mission to find Robb's sister Sansa Stark. Sansa is hiding in the Vale of Arryn, protected by her mother's childhood friend Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish, who has murdered his wife (and her aunt), Lysa Arryn, and named himself Protector of the Vale and guardian of Lysa's son, the eight-year-old Lord Robert Arryn.
Prologue
Pate is a young apprentice at the Citadel in Oldtown, training to become a member of the ancient order of scholar-healers known as maesters. At a stranger's request, he has stolen an important key to a depository of books and records. After turning over the stolen key and receiving the reward of a gold coin, he bites the coin and dies abruptly from poisoning.
King's Landing
Following the death of Tywin Lannister, the late Hand of the King, Queen Cersei's regency is marked by rampant cronyism, and her councils are staffed with incompetent officials and unreliable sycophants. She disregards advice from her uncle Kevan Lannister and her brother Jaime, alienating them both. Making matters worse is Cersei's increasing distrust of the powerful House Tyrell, whose alliance is essential to the stability of the Lannister regime—particularly King Tommen's fiancée, Margaery, whom Cersei believes to be the subject of a prophecy about a "younger, more beautiful queen" who will take away all that Cersei holds dear.
Her reckless management raises the kingdom's debts to the Iron Bank of Braavos and the Faith of the Seven. When Cersei defaults the debt owed to the Iron Bank, the Bank's financial retaliation nearly cripples the economy of Westeros. To settle the crown's debts to the Faith, Cersei permits the restoration of its military order, the Faith Militant, ignoring the danger of a re-armed Faith. A scheme to falsely have the Faith put Margaery on trial for adultery backfires when the religious leadership imprisons Cersei herself on similar—and correct—charges.
Riverlands
Cersei dispatches Jaime to the Riverlands to put down the remnants of the late Robb Stark's rebellion. He unsuccessfully negotiates with Robb's great-uncle Brynden "the Blackfish" Tully to surrender the castle of Riverrun in exchange for his nephew Edmure's life, but he then convinces Edmure to surrender to save the lives of his men and his unborn child. Although the siege ends bloodlessly, Brynden escapes. Jaime then receives word that Cersei, who has been arrested by the Faith, wants him to defend her in a trial by combat, but Jaime burns her letter and abandons her to her fate.
Brienne's quest takes her across the Riverlands, where she witnesses the devastation of war. She acquires Podrick Payne, the former squire of Jaime's brother Tyrion, and Ser Hyle Hunt, a knight who had once mocked her ugliness, as traveling companions. She learns that Sansa's sister, Arya Stark, has actually survived and escaped King's Landing, and the feared warrior Sandor "the Hound" Clegane is reportedly dead, but someone wearing his helmet has massacred the town of Saltpans. She later kills the culprit, Rorge, but is gravely injured and mutilated by his companion, Biter. Eventually, she is captured by the Brotherhood Without Banners, which was once devoted to protecting the smallfolk of the Riverlands but is now commanded by the magically resurrected Catelyn Stark, Sansa's mother. The undead and vengeful Catelyn, who has taken the name Lady Stoneheart, sentences Brienne to death for consorting with the Lannisters but offers to spare her and her companions if she agrees to kill Jaime.
The Vale
In the remote castle of the Eyrie, Sansa poses as Littlefinger's illegitimate daughter Alayne Stone, befriending the young Lord Robert Arryn, managing the household, and receiving informal training in politics. During this time, Littlefinger appears to be carefully manipulating Robert's bannermen to secure his status as Lord Protector of the Vale. He eventually reveals that he plans to betroth Sansa to Harrold Hardyng, the next heir in line to the Vale; when the sickly Robert dies, Littlefinger intends to reveal Sansa's identity and claim her family stronghold of Winterfell in her name.
Iron Islands
On the Iron Islands, the late Balon Greyjoy's eldest surviving brother, Euron, returns from exile to claim the throne. To prevent this, his younger brother Aeron, a priest, calls a Kingsmoot to choose the successor. Although Euron's claim is challenged by his other younger brother Victarion and Balon's daughter, Asha, Euron is ultimately chosen as king for his vow to conquer Westeros and control Daenerys Targaryen's dragons with an enchanted horn he has. Under Euron's leadership, the Iron Fleet attacks the Reach, threatening House Tyrell's seat at Highgarden. Euron sends Victarion east to propose marriage to Daenerys on his behalf—to thus gain a claim to the Iron Throne—but Victarion secretly decides to woo her for himself instead.
Dorne
In the southern region of Dorne, Prince Doran Martell is confronted by three of the Sand Snakes—his brother Oberyn's bastard daughters—who want vengeance for the death of their father. Because they incite the commonfolk, Doran has his guard captain, Areo Hotah, arrest and imprison them in the palace.
A bold attempt by Doran's daughter Arianne to create a war of succession by crowning Tommen's sister, Myrcella Baratheon, as queen of Westeros is thwarted. In the confusion, one of Arianne's co-conspirators, Ser Gerold "Darkstar" Dayne, attempts to kill Myrcella and disfigures her face. Myrcella's guardian, Ser Arys Oakheart, is killed by Areo Hotah. This strains Dorne's new alliance with the Iron Throne. Doran later reveals to his daughter that he has a much grander plan to bring down the Lannisters, and her brother Quentyn has gone east to bring back "Fire and Blood" through an alliance with Daenerys.
Braavos
Arriving in the foreign city of Braavos, Arya Stark finds her way to the cult of face-changing assassins known as the Faceless Men. Accepted as a novice, Arya is taught to abandon her previous identity, but her true identity asserts itself in the form of wolf dreams.
Meanwhile, the Night's Watch lord commander Jon Snow has ordered Samwell Tarly to sail to the Citadel in Oldtown to train as a maester and warn the Seven Kingdoms about the return of the legendary hostile beings known as the Others. Sam is accompanied by the elderly Maester Aemon, the wildling girl Gilly, Gilly's newborn baby, and another Night's Watch member, Dareon. After the voyage begins, Sam realizes the child is actually the son of the wildling leader Mance Rayder, swapped with Gilly's real son. The party becomes temporarily stranded in Braavos when Aemon becomes sick, and Daeron absconds with their money. After learning that Daenerys possesses dragons, Aemon concludes that she is destined to fulfill a prophecy and that he needs to assist her. Shortly after the party finally leaves Braavos, Aemon dies at the age of 102. After Sam's party leaves, Arya chances upon Daeron and murders him for deserting the Night's Watch. As punishment for the unauthorized killing, the Faceless Men then feed her a potion that causes blindness.
Oldtown
At the end of the novel, Sam arrives at the Citadel and is introduced to Archmaester Marwyn. After learning about Aemon's death and the dragon prophecy about Daenerys, Marwyn leaves to find Daenerys. Before he leaves, he reveals to Sam that there is a maester conspiracy to suppress magic and that the Citadel orchestrated the downfall of the dragons centuries ago. He warns him not to talk about prophecy or dragons because the maesters will probably poison him. Sam also meets an acolyte who looks like and is named Pate.
A Dance with Dragons
=== The Wall and beyond ===
Stannis Baratheon, a claimant to the Iron Throne of Westeros, occupies the Wall at the realm's northern border, having repelled an invasion of wildlings from the northern wilderness. He executes who he believes to be Mance Rayder, the leader of the wildlings, for refusing to submit to him and marches his army south to seek support in his bid for the throne.
Jon Snow, the newly elected Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, which defends the Wall, prepares the defense of the realm against the Others, a hostile race of inhuman creatures from the far north. Jon negotiates with the wildling leader Tormund Giantsbane to let Tormund's men pass in exchange for their assistance. This results in a fragile peace and creates unrest among the Watch, as they have long considered the wildlings their enemies.
Jon receives word that his half-sister, Arya Stark, is to be married to their family's enemy Ramsay Bolton, while Stannis's advisor, the sorceress Melisandre, warns that she is in danger. Mance, thanks to Melisandre's magic, is alive, and he is sent to the Starks' ancestral castle, Winterfell, now occupied by the Boltons, to rescue Arya. However, the girl in Melisandre's visions turns out to be Alys Karstark, a young noblewoman fleeing to escape her treacherous uncle. To protect Alys and integrate the wildlings into Westerosi society, Jon arranges for Alys to marry Sigorn of Thenn, a wildling leader.
Jon receives a taunting letter, seemingly authored by Ramsay Bolton, who claims to have crushed Stannis's army at Winterfell. Threatening an attack, Ramsay demands that Jon send him Stannis's wife, daughter, and other hostages, in addition to Arya and Jon's foster-brother, Theon Greyjoy, the latter two of whom Jon has not seen in years. Jon decides to march on Ramsay himself and asks for volunteers to accompany him. His officers view Jon's intent to march on Ramsay as a betrayal of the Watch's neutrality, and he is stabbed in a mutiny.
Meanwhile, Jon's paraplegic half-brother, Bran Stark, traveling north of the Wall, is led to the last surviving Children of the Forest, the non-human natives of Westeros. They introduce Bran and his companions to the "last greenseer", a man intertwined with the roots of a weirwood tree (hinted to be Brynden Rivers, a character introduced in the Tales of Dunk and Egg). He helps Bran learn clairvoyant "greensight", enabling Bran to witness the past and present through the eyes of the weirwood trees that grow throughout the North.
Across the Narrow Sea
==== In the Free Cities ====
Having killed his father Tywin, the Hand of the King, the dwarf Tyrion Lannister is smuggled out of Westeros to the city of Pentos by the spymaster Varys, where he is sheltered by the merchant Illyrio Mopatis. Tyrion is sent south with a party ostensibly to aid the exiled princess Daenerys Targaryen, who controls the only living dragons, in claiming the Iron Throne. Tyrion learns that Varys and Illyrio have hidden the presumed-dead Aegon VI Targaryen, son of Daenerys's late brother Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, and intend to install him as the king of Westeros with Daenerys's aid. Tyrion persuades Aegon to invade Westeros immediately, without waiting for Daenerys. Soon afterward, Tyrion is kidnapped by Daenerys's disgraced advisor, Jorah Mormont, who intends to deliver him to Daenerys in order to regain her favor.
In the Free City of Braavos, Arya is an acolyte of the guild of assassins known as the Faceless Men. When they temporarily afflict her with blindness, Arya develops her sense of hearing and realizes that she can "see" through the eyes of cats the same way she could with her pet direwolf, Nymeria. After her sight is restored, Arya is tasked with assassinating a corrupt merchant while magically disguised with another girl's face. After doing so, Arya is declared an apprentice of the Faceless Men, to be sent to another assassin to continue her training.
Slaver's Bay
Daenerys has conquered the city of Meereen and banned slavery, but struggles to maintain peace among various factions within the city, including the Sons of the Harpy, a violent Meereenese resistance group, and the neighboring city of Yunkai.
Daenerys's dragons have become increasingly dangerous, and she reluctantly confines them in a dungeon for the safety of her people. Drogon, the largest, evades capture and flies off. Despite her sexual relationship with the mercenary Daario Naharis, Daenerys marries the Meereenese nobleman Hizdahr zo Loraq to secure an alliance to appease the Sons of the Harpy.
Quentyn Martell, the son of the prince of Dorne in southern Westeros, arrives in Meereen in hopes of renewing the alliance between Daenerys's family and his, but he is unable to maintain her attention. Jorah and Tyrion are shipwrecked, kidnapped, and sold to a Yunkish slave trader. They escape from the Yunkish army besieging Meereen and join the Second Sons mercenary group, with Tyrion intending to secure their support for Daenerys. Meanwhile, another Westerosi, Victarion Greyjoy, sails for Meereen, intending to marry Daenerys and use her dragons to overthrow his brother, the king of the Ironborn.
At Hizdahr's insistence, Daenerys reopens the city's "fighting pits" for gladiatorial combat, but the noise and carnage attract Drogon. In the resulting chaos, Daenerys climbs onto Drogon to calm him, but he flies away with her. Hizdahr is implicated in an attempt to poison Daenerys. Her advisor, Barristan Selmy, takes part in a plot to remove Hizdahr from power, and the Sons of the Harpy resume their killing. Barristan prepares for battle with the armies outside Meereen. Quentyn attempts to prove his worth by riding one of the remaining dragons but is killed, and both dragons are released.
Drogon flies Daenerys to the Dothraki Sea, the grassland controlled by the nomadic Dothraki people. After several days, Daenerys encounters a Dothraki horde led by Khal Jhaqo.
In the Seven Kingdoms
==== The North ====
In the North, Roose Bolton has overthrown House Stark and assumed authority as the Warden of the North after allying with House Frey. Much of the region is occupied by Ironborn invaders. Following Jon Snow's advice, Stannis wins the support of Northern mountain clans by pledging to recapture Winterfell and fighting off the Ironborn. With their support, Stannis captures Asha Greyjoy, Victarion's niece, and marches his forces toward Winterfell to attack the Boltons, but his advance is halted by heavy snowstorms.
Stannis's advisor, Davos Seaworth, is sent to win the support of the wealthy lord Wyman Manderly, who pretends to execute Davos to curry favor with the Lannister regime that controls the Iron Throne. In a secret meeting, Manderly tells Davos that he and other Northern vassals intend to feign submission to the Boltons and Lannisters while plotting the restoration of Stark rule and revenge for Robb Stark's death. Revealing to Davos that young Rickon Stark is in hiding on the remote island of Skagos, Manderly pledges to support Stannis if Davos can retrieve Rickon and unite the Starks' supporters around him.
Theon Greyjoy is a prisoner of the Boltons and is mutilated and tortured by Roose's sadistic son Ramsay, who renames Theon "Reek". To cement his rule over the North, Roose has Ramsay supposedly married to Arya Stark, but the girl is actually Jeyne Poole, a friend of Arya's sister, Sansa; Jeyne is forced to impersonate Arya and is physically and sexually tormented by Ramsay. Disguised, Mance Rayder arrives at Winterfell and enlists Theon to help him free the false Arya. Meanwhile, tensions are high in Winterfell, with Manderly suspected of murdering three Freys who came to White Harbor, and other deaths happening around Winterfell. Theon and Jeyne escape, leaping from the castle wall into the snow to be captured by Stannis's forces.
The South
Jaime Lannister, the uncle (and, secretly, father) of the young king Tommen Baratheon, negotiates the surrender of the last of the late Robb Stark's allies, nominally putting an end to the Stark–Lannister war in the Riverlands. Brienne of Tarth, whom Jaime had sent to search for Sansa Stark, finds Jaime and tells him Sansa is in danger; he follows after her.
After Tyrion convinces Aegon to attack Westeros, Aegon and his forces capture several castles in the Stormlands with little resistance. Meanwhile, Aegon's foster father, Jon Connington, is secretly succumbing to greyscale, a deadly and contagious disease.
Doran Martell, the prince of Dorne, sends two of his nieces north to the capital city of King's Landing to infiltrate the Faith and the government and work in Dorne's interests.
Cersei Lannister, Tommen's mother and queen regent, has been arrested by the Faith on charges of fornication and conspiracy. To gain release from her imprisonment, she confesses to several of the lesser charges against her, but does not confess to having murdered her husband, King Robert Baratheon, nor that her children are the product of incest. As a condition of her release, Cersei is forced to humiliate herself by walking naked across the city. Meanwhile, Cersei's ally, the ex-maester Qyburn, has created "Ser Robert Strong", an eight-foot-tall figure encased in armor, to be an unbeatable champion in Cersei's upcoming trial by combat.
Having taken control of the government, Cersei's uncle, Kevan Lannister, and Grand Maester Pycelle attempt to undo the damage caused by Cersei's misrule. However, Varys reappears and fatally wounds both Kevan and Pycelle, revealing that he has been plotting for years for the Lannisters to destroy themselves so that Aegon Targaryen can take the throne, having been raised to be an ideal ruler. The book ends with Varys sending his child spies to finish Kevan off.
Extras
In addition to the maps published in previous books, the book includes a new map of the previously unmapped area of the Free Cities on the eastern continent. Like the previous four volumes in the Ice and Fire series, the book includes an appendix with a complete list of characters.
Sources and content license
Source and revision history ↗ · Exact listed stories combined in catalog order. Sources retain their stated license; formatting and headings adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, A Game of Thrones. Section headings and formatting adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, A Clash of Kings. Section headings and formatting adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, A Storm of Swords. Section headings and formatting adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, A Feast for Crows. Section headings and formatting adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, A Dance with Dragons. Section headings and formatting adjusted. · Content license