Wyrd Sisters

In Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters, three witches meet on a stormy moor in the Ramtop Mountains of the Discworld for the first time as a coven. Magrat Garlick, a young witch who inherited her territory from the late Goodie Whemper, proposed the gathering. She is joined by Granny Weatherwax, the most respected witch in the Ramtops, and Nanny Ogg, an elderly mother of 15 who lives in the town of Lancre.

A coach hurtles out of the storm, pursued by armed riders. The dying coachman thrusts a bundled baby into Granny's arms before collapsing. The lead pursuer demands the child, but one of his own soldiers, horrified at the idea of harming witches, stabs him from behind. The witches discover the baby is a boy and find the crown of King Verence of Lancre in the coach.

Inside Lancre Castle, King Verence has been murdered by his cousin, Duke Felmet, who stabbed him with the king's own dagger and pushed him down a staircase. Verence's ghost rises and encounters Death, who tells him he must remain a ghost until he fulfills an unspecified destiny. He finds the baby and crown gone and discovers he is bound to the castle.

Duke Felmet and his domineering wife, Lady Felmet, take control of Lancre. The duke is tormented by guilt, obsessively scrubbing the blood from his hand, though the stain never fades in his mind. The duchess drives his ambitions. The new regime raises taxes and burns villagers' homes, but the mountain people respond with passive resistance.

The witches decide the baby's fate. Granny insists he must be taken far from Lancre and the crown hidden, since crowns call out to people's minds. They attend a traveling theater performance and meet Olwyn Vitoller, the company's manager, and his wife, who recently lost a daughter. The Vitollers agree to adopt the baby, whom Granny names Tomjon. Magrat hides the real crown among the actors' theatrical props, where it looks shabby among fake crowns. Each witch bestows a gift: Magrat gives Tomjon the ability to make friends easily, Nanny gives him a good memory, and Granny gives him the power to be whoever he thinks he is.

The duke sends soldiers to arrest Granny, but she defuses the encounter by serving them tea. He begins consulting his castle Fool, a young man from a family of court jesters, trained at the Fools' Guild in Ankh-Morpork. The Fool advises that words can undermine the witches more effectively than swords, and the duke launches a propaganda campaign against them.

A year passes. The toddler Tomjon speaks his first words by reciting a dramatic monologue, perfectly mimicking Vitoller's voice. Hwel, Vitoller's dwarf playwright, is astonished. Tomjon proves able to reproduce any actor's voice and manner, transforming ordinary dialogue into something transcendent.

The land of Lancre itself stirs in response to the duke's misrule. The witches summon a demon, who reveals that the land has awakened because it wants a king who cares for it. Granny realizes the kingdom functions as a vast collective mind composed of every living thing, sensing the duke's hatred. Animals gather at Granny's cottage, imploring action, but she refuses, citing the rule against meddling in politics.

Meanwhile, Magrat encounters the Fool and begins a tentative courtship. His real name is Verence, named by his mother after kings. Nanny Ogg enters the castle searching for her missing cat Greebo and is seized by the duke. In the dungeon, King Verence's ghost reveals he lured Nanny there by trapping the cat, hoping a witch would come. Magrat forces her way into the castle and uses plant magic to shatter the dungeon door, freeing Nanny.

Granny confronts the duke, but he defeats her with logic: If witches overthrow him by magic, any replacement king would be a puppet under their control. The duke forces the witches before the crowd, with archers on the walls, and promises to moderate his rule if they cooperate. Granny complies but is deeply humiliated when the crowd sniggers, revealing that the propaganda has eroded public respect for witches.

After this humiliation, Granny devises a plan inspired by the legendary Black Aliss, a witch who once sent a castle to sleep for 100 years. Granny's plan is far more ambitious: She will move the entire kingdom 15 years forward in time so Tomjon can claim the throne. The spell requires flying around the kingdom's borders before cockcrow. Her broomstick catches fire during the harrowing flight, and Nanny catches her in a desperate aerial rescue. Nanny has arranged for her family to strangle every cockerel in Lancre, buying extra time. The spell takes effect just before dawn, and a kiss between Magrat and the Fool on a hilltop lasts the entire 15 years.

During those years, Tomjon grows into an extraordinary actor. He persuades Vitoller to build a permanent theater called the Dysk in Ankh-Morpork, though the project requires dangerous borrowing. The duke sends the Fool to Ankh-Morpork to commission a play presenting Felmet as rightful king and the witches as villains. The Fool is robbed but rescued by Tomjon and Hwel. Hwel notices a physical resemblance between the two men but dismisses it. He accepts the commission because the money will save the Dysk and writes the propaganda play through many drafts.

Back in Lancre, the duke approves the play and orders its performance, hoping to publicly disgrace the witches. The Fool secretly informs Magrat of the play's details. Despite knowing the duke's intentions, the witches decide they must attend.

On performance night, the stage manager mistakes the three real witches for boy actors and sends them onstage. A massive thunderstorm provides dramatic effects. Granny uses her power to strip away the scripted dialogue and replace it with truth. The actors, possessed by memories stored in the castle's stones, reenact the actual murder of King Verence. Tomjon is briefly taken over by the old king's ghost, who rages about being killed with his own dagger.

Unable to distinguish play from reality, the duke climbs onstage and delivers a rambling confession. He stabs actors and his wife with the trick dagger, whose blade harmlessly retracts, then wanders to the battlements, convinced he is dead. The duchess orders the guards to arrest the witches, but the soldiers refuse. Granny uses "headology," her term for psychological manipulation, to force the duchess to confront every terrible thing she has done. The duchess collapses but recovers, declaring herself proud of everything. Nanny resolves the standoff by hitting the duchess over the head with a cauldron.

Granny declares Tomjon the true King of Lancre and presents the crown she hid among the theatrical props years earlier. Tomjon refuses, insisting he is an actor. Magrat pulls the Fool forward, having realized the two men look alike and that the Fool is the elder brother. Granny and Nanny vouch for the claim, and the Fool is accepted as King Verence II.

On the battlements, the delusional duke declares himself a ghost, steps off the wall, and falls to his death. The duchess escapes her prison tower and flees into the forest, but the forest, animated by the land's will, closes around her.

Tomjon departs with the acting company, using the new king's payment to fund the Dysk. Verence II begins the difficult work of ruling. In a private conversation, Granny and Nanny reveal to Magrat that the Fool's father fathered both boys, meaning neither is the old king's son by blood. Both witches agree this truth serves no purpose; what matters is that Verence II takes kingship seriously. Granny declares that destiny is something people control, not something that controls them. The witches let their coven lapse, each returning to her own cottage. In a final scene, the new king rides to Magrat's cottage with flowers and wine and falls asleep by her fire.