A Game of Thrones Summary

A Game of Thrones opens with a description of three men from the Night’s Watch traveling beyond the Wall. The Wall is a 700-foot tall structure that protects Westeros from the Others, who haven’t been seen in 8,000 years. The men are attacked by the Others, creatures with piercing blue eyes and ice-cold skin. After one of the men is killed by the Others, he rises with piercing blue eyes and kills another member of the Night’s Watch. The third man on that expedition runs away and is later charged with deserting the Night’s Watch, the punishment for which is execution. Ned Stark carries out the execution.

Ned Stark is the Lord of Winterfell, a castle in the north of the continent Westeros. His wife, Catelyn, tells him that the king, Robert Baratheon, will be visiting him following the death of Jon Arryn. Jon Arryn had been Robert’s advisor as the Hand of the King, and Ned and Robert had both been mentored by Jon Arryn when they were younger. During that time, Ned and Robert formed a close bond and came to think of Jon Arryn as a father figure.

Robert arrives in Winterfell with the queen, Cersei Lannister, and Cersei’s brothers, Jaime and Tyrion Lannister. While visiting, Robert asks Ned to take Jon Arryn’s role as the Hand of the King. Ned is reluctant. He wants to stay in Winterfell with his family instead of going to live in King’s Landing, where the king and his small council (his group of advisors) reside. Ned asks to think about it. Catelyn then receives a note from her sister, Lysa, who is Jon Arryn’s widow. In that note, Lysa says that the Lannisters killed Jon Arryn. Catelyn says that, knowing this information, Ned has to accept Robert’s offer to make Ned the Hand of the King, both to protect Robert from the Lannisters and to find out if they killed Jon Arryn.

While Robert and the Lannisters are still in Winterfell, one of Ned’s sons, Bran, goes climbing. Climbing is his favorite pastime. When Bran is near the top of an abandoned building, he hears two people talking. They’re saying that Ned shouldn’t be the Hand of the King. When Bran gets a glimpse into the window, he sees Cersei having sex with her brother Jaime. Jaime hauls Bran in through the window and then shoves him back out. Bran falls several stories to the ground. Bran goes into a coma after the fall and awakens weeks later, paralyzed and with no memory of what happened.

Ned accepts Robert’s offer to become the Hand of the King. He sets out for King’s Landing (where the king and royal family live) with his two daughters, Arya and Sansa. Ned’s sons Robb, Bran, and Rickon stay at Winterfell with Catelyn. Jon Snow, a child who Ned had out of wedlock and who Catelyn resents, is sent to serve on the Night’s Watch. The number of people serving on the Night’s Watch has been rapidly declining and those who do serve have been disappearing when they venture beyond the Wall at alarmingly high rates.

After Ned leaves, someone sneaks into Bran’s room and tries to kill him. Catelyn is there and stops the attack with help from Bran’s direwolf (a wolf larger than a horse). Catelyn decides to find out who tried to kill Bran. She travels to King’s Landing and brings the dagger used in the attack with her, hoping that it can be identified. In King’s Landing, Catelyn tries not to attract attention, but her old friend, Littlefinger, finds out she’s there. Littlefinger brings Ned and Catelyn together and tells them that the dagger was his before he lost it in a bet to Tyrion Lannister. Ned and Catelyn then suspect that the Lannisters not only killed Jon Arryn but also attempted to kill Bran. Catelyn decides to return to Winterfell to avoid attracting any more attention.

Ned stays in King’s Landing, where he struggles in his role of Hand of the King. He gets into an argument with Robert when Robert insists that they should kill Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen—even though Daenerys is only 14—as well as Daenerys’s unborn child. Robert took the throne after the former king, Aerys II Targaryen was killed (by Jaime Lannister), so Robert is concerned that Aerys’s heirs, including Viserys and Daenerys’s unborn child, will have a claim to the throne if they’re not killed. Ned thinks that it’s vile to consider killing children, and he quits the role of Hand of the King in protest.

In Essos, a continent to the east of Westeros, Viserys makes Daenerys marry Khal Drogo, the ruler of a large army of Dothraki people. Viserys is trying to trade Daenerys’s hand in marriage for the support of Khal Drogo’s army in his attempt to reclaim the Crown in Westeros. After the marriage, Viserys and Daenerys travel with Khal Drogo’s nomadic group, and Daenerys becomes pregnant. Viserys is an ineffectual leader, and he alienates Khal Drogo and the Dothraki people. When Khal Drogo sees Viserys threatening Daenerys and her unborn child, Khal Drogo kills Viserys. Daenerys continues to live with Khal Drogo and his nomadic group, and the Dothraki people believe that her unborn son will be the king of kings that prophecies have promised. After Viserys’s death, an assassin tries to kill Daenerys before an exiled knight who lives with the Dothraki, Jorah Mormont, steps in to stop the attempted poisoning. In response, Khal Drogo vows to use his army to ensure that Daenerys’s unborn son will one day be the king of Westeros.

Meanwhile, as Catelyn travels back to Winterfell from King’s Landing, she coincidentally meets Tyrion Lannister in an inn. Catelyn places Tyrion under arrest for conspiring to kill Bran and brings him to the Eyrie, the castle where her sister Lysa traveled to after Jon Arryn’s death. Tyrion arranges to have a trial by combat at the Eyrie. A soldier for hire, Bronn, fights in his stead. Bronn wins the fight, and he and Tyrion are free to go.

In King’s Landing, in retaliation for Catelyn’s arrest of Tyrion, Jaime attacks Ned and his men. He spares Ned’s life but kills Ned’s men. Ned falls into a coma from injuries sustained during the fight. When he wakes up, Robert tells Ned that he has to be the Hand of the King again or else the role will go to Jaime Lannister. Ned reluctantly accepts.

While Robert is gone on a hunting trip, Ned hears complaints from people who say that the Lannisters have been conducting raids on their land. No one can prove that the Lannisters are behind it, but it seems clear that one of the Lannisters’ most well-known knights, Gregor Clegane, is involved. Ned orders Gregor’s execution.

Ned also continues his investigations into Jon Arryn’s death. He puts the pieces together and learns that Jon Arryn was killed because he found out that Robert and Cersei’s son Joffrey is actually Cersei and Jaime’s son. Ned confronts Cersei with the truth. Cersei says that her two other children are Jaime’s as well and not Robert’s. Ned demands that Cersei take her children and flee to live in exile, but Cersei doesn’t listen.

When Robert returns from the hunting trip, he has been fatally wounded during an encounter with a boar. He dictates his last will to Ned. In that will, Robert appoints Ned to be the protector of the realm until his son Joffrey comes of age. Ned knows that Joffrey is not Robert’s biological son, so he changes the name “Joffrey” to the word “heir.” According to Ned, Robert’s oldest brother, Stannis, is the rightful heir to the throne.

After Robert dies, Ned wants to ensure that Joffrey doesn’t inherit the crown. He and Littlefinger decide to bribe the City Watch (those in charge of law enforcement in King’s Landing) to make sure they support Ned when he and Cersei make competing claims about who is the rightful heir to the throne. When the moment comes, Ned says that Stannis is the rightful heir to the throne because Joffrey is not Robert’s son. Cersei says that it is nonsense. Littlefinger holds a dagger to Ned’s throat. The City Watch kills Ned’s men before arresting Ned, making it clear that Littlefinger betrayed him. After Ned is taken prisoner, Arya runs away from Lannister men who try to capture her. Sansa is engaged to Joffrey and thinks that Joffrey will listen to her when she pleads with him to show her father mercy.

Robb amasses the Stark bannermen (the people in the north who pledge fealty to the Starks) to march south and fight the Lannister army, which has continued to conduct raids in the Riverlands. After leaving the Eyrie, Tyrion forms alliances with representatives of several mountain clans, and he travels with them to meet up with the Lannister army.

In King’s Landing, Ned is formally accused of treason. Sansa pleads with Joffrey to spare her father’s life and send him to serve out the rest of his days as a member of the Night’s Watch. Joffrey appears to consider what she wants, but when Ned is tried for treason, Joffrey says he wants his head. Ned is then executed in front of Sansa.

After Jon Snow hears of Ned’s execution, he considers deserting the Night’s Watch to fight alongside Robb and the Starks. Jon leaves and makes it one town down the road before his friends catch up with him and bring him back. Jon’s commander then tells him that they’re planning an expansive expedition beyond the Wall to find out why men of the Night’s Watch have been disappearing, and Jon decides to stay in the Night’s Watch.

The Stark army continues to march to fight the Lannister army. The Stark army loses its first major battle. Robb deploys a strategy to split the Lannister army in two and captures Jaime Lannister in a second battle. When deciding what to do next, Robb’s bannermen declare him the “King of the North” and say they will follow him rather than recognizing whoever is king in King’s Landing.

In Essos, Khal Drogo’s khalasar (a band of nomadic Dothraki people) attacks a town of shepherds. In the aftermath, Daenerys steps in to stop Khal Drogo’s men from raping women. One of those women is Mirri, who says she is a healer. Khal Drogo is injured in the attack, and Mirri applies a salve to help him heal. Khal Drogo rips off that salve and falls into a high fever. When Drogo is on the brink of death, Daenerys calls Mirri to help save him. Mirri says he will die unless she performs a spell in which death will be exchanged for life. Mirri does the spell, and Daenerys miscarries her pregnancy. Khal Drogo survives but is in a catatonic state. Realizing that Khal Drogo will never wake up, Daenerys smothers him with a pillow. She then burns Mirri alive on Khal Drogo’s funeral pyre, hoping she can use the same logic that death can be exchanged for life. Daenerys walks into the flames holding three petrified dragon eggs that she received as a wedding gift. When she emerges from the flames, she is unharmed, and the dragon eggs have hatched.