Melena gives birth to a green-skinned baby girl with sharp teeth inside a graveyard during a mob siege.

Turtle Heart, a Quadling glassblower, arrives at Melena's home and begins a secret affair with her.

Nessarose is born without arms on the same night that Turtle Heart is sacrificed by an angry mob.

Elphaba enrolls at Shiz University, where Madame Morrible assigns her the privileged Galinda as a roommate.

Doctor Dillamond, an Animal professor and Elphaba's mentor, is found murdered with his throat cut open.

Madame Morrible privately proposes training Glinda, Elphaba, and Nessarose to become powerful agents for the Wizard.

Elphaba and Glinda travel to the Emerald City and meet the terrifying smoke-and-lights Wizard.

Elphaba stays in the Emerald City to advocate for Animal Rights while Glinda returns to Shiz.

Fiyero, now married with children, reconnects with Elphaba in the Emerald City and they begin a secret affair.

The Wizard's Gale Force soldiers murder Fiyero in Elphaba's room while he waits for her to return.

Elphaba emerges from years in a convent with a young boy named Liir and sets out toward Fiyero's homeland.

A tornado carries a house from a distant land that crashes onto Nessarose, killing her instantly.

Glinda gives Dorothy Nessarose's sparkly red shoes and sends her off to the Emerald City for help.

Elphaba confronts the Wizard without his disguise and learns that Fiyero's family was executed and Nor is enslaved.

Dorothy accidentally douses the burning Elphaba with a bucket of water, triggering her fatal allergy.

Wicked follows Elphaba from her unusual green-skinned birth during a violent mob siege to her years at Shiz University, where she befriends Glinda and witnesses the murder of her Animal mentor Doctor Dillamond. When the Wizard's headmistress Madame Morrible attempts to recruit both girls as political agents, Elphaba and Glinda travel to the Emerald City to confront the Wizard directly, after which Elphaba stays to fight for Animal Rights while Glinda returns to school. Years later, Elphaba takes a secret lover in the married Fiyero, whose brutal murder by the Wizard's forces shatters her and sends her into years of isolation in a convent. She eventually resurfaces with a young boy named Liir, but her world collapses further when her sister Nessarose is killed by a tornado-carried house and a girl named Dorothy inherits the family's magical shoes. After a final confrontation with the Wizard and a failed attempt to reclaim the shoes, Elphaba is accidentally killed by Dorothy, who splashes her with water while trying to save her.

The Clock of the Time Dragon performs a puppet show that publicly humiliates Frex before his own parish.

Turtle Heart uses the word horrors to describe his homeland; baby Elphaba then speaks her very first word.

Nanny visits the sorceress Yackle, who gives her a potion and predicts Elphaba will one day rewrite history.

Melena dies in childbirth delivering their son Shell after the family has settled in Quadling Country.

Galinda secretly visits Madame Morrible and invents a story about her Ama in hopes of switching roommates.

New student Fiyero arrives at Shiz and accidentally causes a potion mishap that disrupts Doctor Nikidik's class.

Doctor Nikidik brings a shivering lion cub to class to experiment on; Elphaba stands up to challenge him.

Boq volunteers to secretly retrieve restricted library documents to aid Elphaba and Doctor Dillamond's Animal research.

Frex sends Nessarose sparkly crystalline shoes he crafted using Turtle Heart's glassblowing techniques.

Ama Clutch uses her final breath to reveal that Grommetik, Madame Morrible's tiktok, killed Doctor Dillamond.

Elphaba rescues a baby snow monkey from her caravan's dog near Fiyero's homeland and names him Chistery.

Fiyero's widow Sarima warmly welcomes Elphaba but firmly refuses to hear any confession about Fiyero's death.

Elphaba discovers a mysterious spell book called the Grimmerie hidden in Sarima's family library.

Nanny arrives unannounced at Sarima's home after tracking Elphaba down and immediately moves in to care for Liir.

Elphaba and Glinda reunite at Nessarose's death scene and furiously argue when Elphaba learns Glinda gave away the shoes.

While Elphaba's story takes center stage, the world of Oz is shaped by a rich cast of supporting characters and quietly significant events. The Clock of the Time Dragon sets the tone for a chaotic Oz torn between faith and vice, while Turtle Heart's presence and Melena's death bracket Elphaba's tragic early life. At Shiz University, Fiyero's disruptive arrival, a lion cub's rescue, and Boq's resourcefulness all shape the political education of Elphaba and her peers, culminating in Ama Clutch's deathbed confession that Madame Morrible's tiktok murdered Doctor Dillamond. After years in hiding, Elphaba finds fragile community at Fiyero's widow Sarima's estate, where she acquires the Grimmerie, reunites with Nanny, and rescues a baby monkey she names Chistery. The story closes with Elphaba and Glinda's final charged reunion over Nessarose's body, where a furious argument about a pair of ruby shoes seals both women's fates.

Supporting characters and hidden story layers.

Nanny discovers that baby Elphaba cannot be bathed in water due to a severe, dangerous allergy.

Frex returns home from his travels and is introduced to Turtle Heart, who has been living with his family.

Galinda and Elphaba bond for the first time during a late-night conversation about whether evil truly exists.

Galinda renames herself Glinda in honor of Doctor Dillamond, who had always mispronounced her name.

Fiyero secretly follows Elphaba on her assassination mission and watches her abandon it when children appear nearby.

During an intimate moment, Elphaba confesses to Fiyero that her underground cell's true target is the Wizard himself.

Sarima's son Manek tricks Liir into hiding in a well for hours; Elphaba revives the seemingly dead boy.

Elphaba drops an icicle on Manek's head, killing him in revenge for his near-drowning of Liir.

Nor discovers that Elphaba's broom can fly while using it to clean the soldiers' quarters.

Elphaba returns to Sarima's home from Munchkinland to find the entire family taken away in chains by soldiers.

Elphaba visits old friend Boq and learns that Madame Morrible is still alive, giving her a new purpose.

The Clock of the Time Dragon's dwarf operator reveals to Elphaba that the Wizard is her biological father.

Elphaba tracks down Madame Morrible in Shiz and kills her by bashing her skull with a mantle trophy.

Elphaba studies Dorothy through a looking glass and discovers a troubling sympathy for the lost, wide-eyed girl.

After Elphaba's death, Dorothy gives the Wizard a mysterious green bottle, unknowingly exposing that he fathered Elphaba.

Beneath the plot's surface lies a series of private revelations and pivotal choices that define who Elphaba becomes. From the early discovery of her fatal water allergy to the late-night conversation with Galinda where their unlikely friendship first took root, Elphaba's character is built through moments of vulnerability and quiet defiance. Her underground mission to kill the Wizard, her affair with Fiyero, and her vengeful murder of Sarima's son Manek each push her further toward the identity the world will give her. The discovery that Sarima's family was taken in chains and that the Wizard is her own biological father shatters her remaining sense of justice and purpose. In the novel's final act, Elphaba murders Madame Morrible, studies Dorothy with unexpected sympathy, and dies unwilling to surrender — leaving Dorothy to unknowingly deliver the proof of the Wizard's darkest secret.