The gunslinger crosses an endless desert, finding the Man in Black's abandoned campfires but never catching sight of him.

The gunslinger arrives at corn farmer Brown's homestead and learns the Man in Black passed through the area recently.

The gunslinger rides into the decrepit town of Tull and hears someone playing 'Hey Jude' on a bar piano.

The Man in Black resurrects a dead devil-grass addict named Nort at a wake inside Sheb's bar in Tull.

A mob of Tull's citizens surges out of doorways and attacks Roland with chunks of wood and knives.

Roland draws his guns and shoots his way through the entire population of Tull to escape the enchanted mob.

Dying of thirst after sixteen days in the desert, Roland collapses at an abandoned way station.

Roland wakes at the way station to find Jake Chambers, a young boy with no memory of how he arrived.

Roland hypnotizes Jake and guides him into a trance to recover his lost memories of his previous life.

Roland and Jake leave the way station together and begin the long trek toward the distant mountain range.

Roland and Jake enter a pitch-black mountain tunnel and follow an abandoned railroad track into the dark.

Glowing green Slow Mutants swarm out of the tunnel darkness and attack Roland and Jake riding a handcar.

The Man in Black appears on a rotting trestle bridge and his laughter causes Jake to lose his footing and fall into the abyss.

At a bone-strewn place called Golgotha, the Man in Black lays out tarot cards and tells Roland his fate.

Roland wakes beside the Man in Black's skeleton, discovers he is ten years older, and walks toward the sea.

Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger, crosses a vast post-apocalyptic desert in relentless pursuit of the mysterious Man in Black. Along the way he is drawn into the town of Tull, where the Man in Black's dark magic has corrupted the population and forces Roland into a bloody massacre to escape. Continuing across the desert, Roland nearly dies of thirst before discovering Jake Chambers, a boy from another world, stranded at a desert way station. The two travel together toward the mountains, enduring a terrifying journey through a pitch-black tunnel filled with murderous Slow Mutants. At a rotting trestle bridge, the Man in Black engineers Jake's death, and Roland sacrifices the boy to continue his quest. Roland finally confronts the Man in Black at Golgotha, receives a vision of the cosmos, and wakes alone and aged beside a skeleton, walking at last toward the distant sea.

Roland's pursuit of the Man in Black from desert to the sea.

Roland's mule dies overnight at Brown's farm, and Brown's raven Zoltan eats the dead animal's eyes.

Brown flatly tells Roland that the Man in Black must have deliberately left a trap waiting for him in Tull.

A devil-grass addict named Nort staggers up to Roland at Sheb's bar and addresses him in the ancient High Speech.

Allie recounts how a robed man claiming to be a priest arrived in Tull after Nort's death and brought him back to life.

The Man in Black leaves a written note for Allie promising the secrets of death if she whispers 'nineteen' to Nort.

Sheb the piano player bursts into Allie's room wielding a knife, and Roland disables him by breaking both his wrists.

Roland hides in the shadows of Tull's church and listens to Sylvia Pittston preach that he is the Antichrist.

Before leaving Tull, Roland discovers Nort's body spread-eagled and crucified on the roof of Sheb's bar and cuts it down.

Jake baffles Roland by describing television channels, Times Square, and other details of a world Roland has never encountered.

A demon trapped behind the way station's cellar wall speaks with Allie's voice and warns Roland that Jake endangers his soul.

Young Roland and his friend Cuthbert take falcon lessons from their brutal teacher Cort, who slaps Cuthbert hard enough to draw blood.

Young Roland and Cuthbert sneak behind the kitchen colonnade and share stolen pie from the cook Hax.

Hidden behind the colonnade, Roland and Cuthbert overhear Hax agree with a guard to receive poisoned meat to feed the town's children.

Jake climbs off the handcar and removes rocks from the tunnel tracks while Roland shoots Slow Mutants bearing down on them.

The Man in Black tells Roland that he and the sorcerer Marten were the same man, who seduced and bedded Roland's mother.

While the main plot follows Roland's chase, a rich layer of secondary events fills in the texture of his dangerous world. At Brown's farm, the death of Roland's mule and Brown's blunt perception of the Man in Black's trap establish how deadly the desert is and how cunning Roland's quarry. In Tull, the backstory surrounding Nort's resurrection, the Man in Black's cryptic note to Allie, Sheb's jealous knife attack, and Nort's crucified body on a rooftop all reveal the depths of the Man in Black's manipulation. At the way station Jake's vivid memories of television and Times Square underscore the collision of worlds, while a demon in the cellar delivers its warning. In Gilead's flashbacks, the childhood friendship of Roland and Cuthbert, the discovery of Hax's treasonous plot, and the tense underground station scene in the tunnel round out the full arc of the story's supporting drama.

The hidden details and encounters that shape Roland's world.

Zoltan the raven recites 'Lead us not into temptation,' sending Roland spiraling into troubling memories of his time in Tull.

Allie the bartender and Roland become lovers after she agrees to share what she knows about the Man in Black.

Roland warns Allie that whispering the word 'nineteen' to Nort will shatter her sanity and she must never say it.

Roland kicks in Sylvia Pittston's door and she reveals the Man in Black visited her, called himself an angel, and slept with her.

After Roland ends Sylvia's demon pregnancy, she reluctantly tells him that mountains lie beyond the desert.

Under hypnosis, Jake relives being pushed into Manhattan traffic by the Man in Black and dying before waking in Roland's world.

Roland thrusts his arm through the cellar wall and pulls out a rotted jawbone to receive a dead oracle's prophecy.

Young Roland reports the cook Hax's treasonous poison plot to his father, the high gunslinger Steven Deschain, sealing Hax's fate.

Roland takes mescaline and enters an ancient stone circle alone to force the succubus oracle into delivering prophecies.

The oracle tells Roland that Jake is his gate to the Man in Black, who is his gate to the Dark Tower.

Roland tells Jake that their world has moved on and that time itself is softening and beginning to unravel.

Roland storms to Cort's cottage and challenges his teacher to the ritual combat of manhood two full years ahead of schedule.

Roland hurls his aging hawk David at Cort's eyes during their fight and uses the distraction to drive Cort to the ground.

Jake tells Roland on the mountainside that he knows Roland will let him die, then takes Roland's hand and follows him anyway.

The Man in Black sends Roland a vision of the universe's full creation and reveals the Tower as the nexus of all worlds.

Beneath the surface of the chase lies a chain of pivotal decisions and shattering revelations that define who Roland is and what his quest will cost him. In Tull, Roland is warned against the word 'nineteen,' confronts Sylvia Pittston's delusion, and must ultimately shoot the woman he loves to escape the Man in Black's trap. At the way station, Jake's hypnotic memory unlocks the truth of his death in another world, while a cellar demon's jawbone prophecy sets the terms for what lies ahead. In the mountain oracle's stone circle, Roland sacrifices his body to learn that Jake is his ordained gateway to the Tower. His childhood flashbacks reveal the weight of betrayal — reporting Hax and defeating Cort — as foundational tests of ruthless resolve. Finally, Jake's despairing confrontation on the mountainside, Roland's willingness to let him fall, and the Man in Black's cosmic vision of the Tower as the nexus of all universes deliver the novel's darkest and most consequential truths.