Jasnah Kholin and her ward Shallan Davar sail toward the Shattered Plains to warn the Alethi of the Voidbringer threat.

Assassins stab Jasnah on the ship; Shallan transforms the vessel into water using soulcasting to escape the killers.

Shallan wakes alone on shore and convinces a slave caravan leader named Tvlakv to transport her to the Shattered Plains.

Brightlord Amaram, who killed Kaladin's friends and enslaved him, arrives at the Shattered Plains as Dalinar's honored ally.

Szeth-son-son-Velano attacks the Kholin family to kill Dalinar; Kaladin tackles the assassin out of a hole in the wall.

Eshonai faces the Stormfather on the plateaus and transforms into stormform, becoming possessed by red lightning spren.

Shallan arrives at the Alethi warcamps and delivers the news of Jasnah's death to the Kholin family.

Shallan studies Amaram's stolen maps and deduces that the Shattered Plains contain an Oathgate leading to Urithiru.

Adolin is overwhelmed by four opposing Shardbearers in the arena; Kaladin leaps in and uses Stormlight to help him win.

Kaladin publicly challenges Amaram as a murderer after the duel; Elhokar orders Kaladin arrested for insubordination.

A saboteur collapses the bridge on the Shattered Plains, dropping Kaladin and Shallan into the chasms below.

The Stormfather appears to Kaladin during the highstorm and declares that Syl is dead, killed by Kaladin's broken oaths.

Kaladin declares he will protect even those he hates; Syl revives and becomes a living Shardblade in his hand.

Kaladin and Szeth battle in the air above the Everstorm; Szeth realizes he was never Truthless and lets the storm take him.

Shallan places Pattern into the Oathgate keyhole and transports Dalinar's entire army to the tower of Urithiru.

The story opens with Jasnah and Shallan racing to warn the Alethi of the Voidbringer threat, only for Jasnah to be murdered before they arrive. Shallan survives and makes her way to the Shattered Plains as Kaladin navigates growing fury toward Amaram, who now stands as Dalinar's trusted ally. The threat escalates when the assassin Szeth attacks Dalinar's family and Eshonai transforms into stormform, committing her people to summoning a world-ending storm. A chaotic arena duel and Kaladin's subsequent arrest fracture the Kholin alliance, while the collapse of a bridge strands Kaladin and Shallan in the chasms and severs Kaladin's bond with Syl. In the climax, Kaladin rediscovers his purpose and defeats Szeth in the sky as Shallan activates the Oathgate, transporting the entire army to Urithiru just as the Everstorm strikes.

The headline events that forge the new Knights Radiant and decide the fate of the Shattered Plains.

Pattern springs to life off the page of Shallan's drawing and emerges as a living liespren aboard the ship.

Dalinar wakes to find a cryptic countdown message carved on his wall and releases his proclamation to unite the highprinces.

Adolin defeats his first duel opponent easily and gives the won Shardblade to his brother Renarin.

Kaladin and Dalinar inspect Elhokar's balcony railing and discover it was deliberately cut with a Shardblade.

Shallan discovers that Tyn's employers ordered Jasnah's murder and kills Tyn with a Shardblade to escape.

Eshonai returns to Narak in stormform, announces the plan to summon the Everstorm, and forces a coup against the ruling Five.

Shallan boldly claims Highprince Sebarial as her host in the middle of Dalinar's meeting, and Sebarial plays along.

Moash reveals to Kaladin that Elhokar imprisoned his grandparents and caused their deaths to benefit a lighteyes business rival.

Disguised as a maid, Shallan breaks into Amaram's manor and discovers his secret maps of the Shattered Plains.

Adolin receives the Right to Challenge from Elhokar and immediately declares a formal duel against Highprince Sadeas.

Adolin gifts Kaladin Shardplate and a Shardblade after leaving prison; Kaladin accepts the plate but gives the blade to Moash.

As Shallan and Kaladin walk through the chasms, her map reveals the plateaus are symmetrical ruins of an ancient city.

Dalinar reveals he planted a lie about hidden Shardblades, proves Amaram would murder for them, and strips him of command.

Adolin distracts Eshonai by exploiting her ambition on the battlefield, causing her to fall off the plateau into a chasm.

Dalinar climbs to the roof of Urithiru, demands the Stormfather make him a Surgebinder, and is named a Bondsmith.

In the background of the main conflict, a series of discoveries and betrayals define the fate of the Alethi. Pattern emerges as Shallan's living spren, Dalinar receives a supernatural countdown carved on his wall, and Adolin begins stripping rivals of their Shardblades through duels, while Eshonai's return to Narak in stormform leads her to overthrow her own council and demand total transformation. Shallan infiltrates the Ghostbloods using a darkeyed disguise, uncovers Amaram's hidden maps of the ruins beneath the Shattered Plains, and maneuvers herself into an independent position in Sebarial's warcamp. Moash's revelation about Elhokar's cruelty deepens Kaladin's disillusionment, and the gifting of a Shardblade pushes him fully into the assassination plot. In the resolution, Dalinar exposes and strips Amaram of his command, Adolin defeats Eshonai on the battlefield, and Dalinar bonds with the Stormfather to become the first of the new Bondsmiths.

The key moments behind the scenes that shape the conflict and seal its resolution.

Jasnah gives Shallan a copy of the book Words of Radiance and warns that the parshmen's transformation signals a coming Desolation.

Syl tells Kaladin she defied the Stormfather himself to bond with Kaladin, believing their work together is critically important.

Shallan wakes alone on the shore after the shipwreck and crafts a confident noble persona to win Tvlakv's cooperation.

Kaladin reports Amaram's crimes to Dalinar but admits he has no evidence, and Dalinar promises only to investigate the matter.

Shallan disguises herself as a dark-eyed woman named Veil and attends her first covert meeting with the Ghostbloods.

Kaladin meets Graves and his assassination conspirators, who plan to remove Elhokar and install Dalinar as ruler.

Kaladin masters flying by lashing himself skyward with Stormlight, fully replicating the assassin Szeth's gravity-defying abilities.

Shallan recognizes the Shardblade Amaram summons as the weapon that belonged to her dead brother Helaran.

Kaladin tells Moash he will help kill Elhokar and passes him the Shardblade that Adolin had given to Kaladin.

A chasmfiend corners Shallan and Kaladin in the chasms; Shallan gives Kaladin her Shardblade and he slays the beast, badly injuring his leg.

Trapped in a cave during the highstorm, Shallan admits to killing her father and Kaladin confesses that Amaram enslaved him.

Shallan and Renarin cut open a ruined building on the circular plateau and discover the ancient Oathgate mechanism inside.

Renarin joins the other Radiants at Urithiru and reveals that he too possesses a spren and Surgebinding abilities as a Truthwatcher.

Pattern pushes Shallan to face her buried past; she remembers using Pattern as a Shardblade to kill her own mother in self-defense.

Adolin encounters Sadeas alone on the steps of Urithiru and, after Sadeas threatens to destroy Dalinar, kills him in secret.

The turning points begin with small but consequential revelations: Jasnah's warning about the coming Desolation, Syl's admission that she defied the Stormfather to bond with Kaladin, and Shallan's discovery of her own inner strength after surviving alone on the shore. Kaladin's report of Amaram's crimes goes unanswered, and he is slowly drawn into a plot to kill the king, while Shallan infiltrates the Ghostbloods and makes the devastating discovery that Amaram carries her dead brother's Shardblade. Both characters are tested to their limits when they fall into the chasms together, face a chasmfiend with no Stormlight, and are forced to share their darkest secrets while hiding from a raging highstorm. Shallan finds the Oathgate and opens it, but her greatest revelation comes when Pattern finally forces her to remember the truth she has buried since childhood. In Urithiru, the new Knights Radiant are officially founded, a hidden murder is committed, and Shallan at last confronts who she really is.