Bloodthirsty, treacherous and cunning, the Lannisters are in power on the Iron Throne in the name of the boy-king Tommen. But with fear and deceit in the air, their enemies are poised to strike. The Martells of Dorn seek vengence for their dead and the heir of dead King Balon of the Iron Isles, Euron Crow's Eye, is as black a pirate as ever raised a sail. Across the worn-torn landscape of the Seven Kingdoms, the daughter of Lord Selwyn of Tarth, called Brienne the Beauty in mockery of her strength, seeks the late king's widow Sansa Stark. She promised the dead girl's mother to protect her from the wrath of Queen Cersei, Tommen's power-hungry mother. Meanwhile, apprentice Maester Samwell Tarly brings a mysterious babe-in-arms south to the citadel from the cruel frozen north where the sinister Others threaten the Wall.