Chett nurses his hatred at the Fist of the First Men, conspiring with a dozen sworn brothers to murder Lord Commander Mormont and desert the Night's Watch before dawn. When Mormont announces a march against Mance Rayder's vast host, fresh snowfall ruins the desertion plan, and Chett creeps toward Sam with murder in mind. Three blasts of the horn shatter the night - the signal not heard in thousands of years - and the Others have come at last.
Jaime drifts down the Red Fork in chains, released from Riverrun by Catelyn in exchange for oaths he has little intention of keeping. When Ser Robin Ryger's galley bears down on them, Brienne scales a cliff and sends a boulder crashing through the pursuing vessel. Jaime considers killing his captor with an oar but instead hauls her from the water, grudgingly marvelling at the stubborn woman's devotion to her sworn word.
Confined to her dying father's chambers at Riverrun, Catelyn listens to Lord Hoster mumble of forgiveness and a woman named Tansy, slowly piecing together that Lysa bore a child before her marriage to Jon Arryn. Edmure returns with grim tidings: Stannis has lost King's Landing, Highgarden and Dorne have declared for Joffrey, and word of Jaime's release has been sent to Roose Bolton at Harrenhal. Catelyn despairs that her gamble to free her daughters may now cost them everything.
Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie flee north from Harrenhal through a countryside scarred by war, navigating by a map stolen from Roose Bolton. In a wolf dream, Arya runs with her pack and tears apart four Brave Companions who had been tracking them through the rain, killing them before they can give pursuit.
Tyrion wakes in Maegor's Holdfast to find his father's hand heavy upon King's Landing, his own heroics at the Blackwater all but erased. Bronn has been knighted and the Kettleblacks bought away, leaving the scarred dwarf with few remaining allies. When Tyrion demands Casterly Rock as his birthright, Tywin refuses with cold contempt and warns that the next whore he finds in his son's bed will hang.
Davos clings to a barren rock in Blackwater Bay, half-mad with thirst and grief for his four dead sons, until a Lyseni galley from Salladhor Saan's fleet plucks him from the sea. He chooses life over despair, though the war he nearly died for has already been lost.
Sansa is invited to dine with Margaery Tyrell and the formidable Queen of Thorns, who pries the truth about Joffrey from her behind a wall of the fool Butterbumps' deafening song. The old woman is unsurprised by Sansa's account of the king's cruelty, and offers a tantalising prospect: a visit to Highgarden and a marriage to Margaery's crippled brother Willas.
Jon is brought before Mance Rayder in the King-Beyond-the-Wall's tent, where the grey-haired lute player reveals he once slipped into Winterfell disguised as a singer during Robert's visit. When Mance asks why Jon deserted, the bastard turns the question back on the king, who tells of a wildling woman's cloak mended with precious cloth and the Night's Watch's refusal to see its worth. Jon wins acceptance among the free folk by reminding Mance where the bastard was seated at the feast.
Aboard ship for Pentos, Daenerys watches her dragons wheel over the summer sea while old Arstan speaks of Rhaegar's transformation from bookish prince to warrior. Ser Jorah urges her to change course for Astapor and purchase the Unsullied, the eunuch slave-soldiers who once held Qohor against an entire khalasar. When Jorah seizes her and kisses her, Daenerys rebuffs him, though his words about the dragon having three heads linger in her mind.
Bran learns to slip into Summer's skin at will while sheltering in the Tumbledown Tower, though Jojen warns him not to lose himself in the wolf. The Reeds insist they must press north to the Wall and find the three-eyed crow, for Jojen has taught the boy all he can.
Davos learns that Stannis has sealed himself in the Stone Drum with only Melisandre for company, while Lord Alester Florent serves as a Hand no one heeds. Resolved to kill the red woman he blames for his sons' deaths, Davos reveals his plan to Salladhor Saan, but upon reaching Dragonstone he is seized by Ser Axell Florent before he can act.
Jaime, Brienne and Cleos stop at the Inn of the Kneeling Man, where talk of Beric Dondarrion's outlaws makes the roads seem perilous in every direction. Brienne wisely takes the opposite path from the one the innkeeper suggests, but Jaime's mind wanders to his past - how Cersei engineered his white cloak so they could be together, and how the Mad King's final command drove Jaime to draw his golden sword. In the empty throne room, it was Eddard Stark who found Jaime seated on the Iron Throne with Aerys's blood still fresh on his blade.
Tyrion discovers that his father means to restore Pycelle and that Ser Mandon Moore - the Kingsguard who tried to murder him - was Jon Arryn's man, not Cersei's. He arranges a secret meeting with Shae through Varys but cannot bring himself to send her away, knowing his father's threat hangs over them both. The singer Symon Silver Tongue, who knows of the affair, becomes yet another problem Tyrion must solve.
Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie are discovered by three of the king's men - Tom Sevenstrings, Lem and the archer Anguy - who bring them to an inn under friendly pretence. When armed strangers arrive and Arya tries to bolt, she is caught and recognised by Harwin, her father's own man, who calls out her true name to the astonishment of all.
Catelyn faces her son's return from the west with a new bride on his arm - Jeyne Westerling, whose very existence shatters the Frey alliance Robb desperately needs. Robb confesses he married Jeyne after she comforted him the night he learned his brothers were dead, and Catelyn notes with unease that Grey Wind growls whenever Jeyne's uncle Rolph Spicer draws near. The Blackfish and Robb berate Edmure for his costly victory at the fords, which inadvertently allowed Tywin to link up with the Tyrells and save King's Landing.
Jon observes Mance's vast host of giants and mammoths while Tormund spins outrageous tales, until the eagle that carries the dead Orell's hatred rakes Jon's face with its talons. Mance confronts Jon at the Fist of the First Men about the Night's Watch's true strength, and only Ygritte's claim that they are lovers saves Jon from execution. That night, sharing a bed for the first time, Jon and Ygritte lie together beneath the shadow of the Wall he is sworn to defend.
Sansa is fitted for a gown by the queen while Margaery cheerfully assures her that Loras will keep Joffrey in check. But when Sansa confides the Tyrell marriage plot to Dontos, the drunken fool warns her that the Tyrells want her only for her claim to Winterfell, and promises they will escape together on Joffrey's wedding day.
Hot Pie stays behind to bake bread as the brotherhood leads Arya deeper into the war-ravaged riverlands, where Harwin tells her how Lord Beric's hunt for Gregor Clegane became a trap that nearly killed them all. Learning that the outlaws mean to bring her before Beric rather than deliver her to Riverrun, Arya tries to ride away, but Harwin - once her father's man, now sworn to the Lord of Light - catches her and carries her back.
Sam and the shattered remnants of the Night's Watch stumble south from the Fist of the First Men, torches flickering against the pressing darkness as wights dog their every step. When the stragglers fall behind, an Other on a dead horse strikes from the swirling snow and kills Small Paul with a blade of ice. Sam drives the dragonglass dagger Jon gave him into the creature and watches it dissolve - body, armour and all - into nothing.
The small council plots the endgame of the war while Tyrion listens and learns: Robb has broken his pledge to the Freys by marrying Jeyne Westerling, and Littlefinger is dispatched to the Eyrie to wed Lysa Arryn and deliver the Vale. Tywin reveals the Tyrell plot to marry Sansa to Willas and moves to counter it, commanding Cersei to wed Willas herself and ordering Tyrion to marry Sansa. Despite furious protests from both his children, Tywin's cold logic prevails: through Sansa, a Lannister heir could one day rule Winterfell.