Originally published in 2011, A Dance With Dragons is the fifth volume of George R. R. Martin’s epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. Set in the aftermath of the events in A Feast for Crows, the narrative follows along as important characters reckon with the new roles thrust upon them and the consequences of their actions. Martin’s work has gained him multiple Locus Awards, and A Dance with Dragons has been adapted as parts of the fourth and fifth seasons of the HBO series Game of Thrones. This guide is based on the 2011 Bantam Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source material features depictions of sexual assault, gender-based violence, misogynistic slurs, and ableist language related to limb differences and appearance.

Plot Summary

A Dance with Dragons continues the stories of people vying for control over Westeros and Daenerys Targaryen’s efforts to be the queen of Meereen, a city on Slaver’s Bay, which is located in Essos, the eastern continent located across the Narrow Sea from Westeros. Daenerys Targaryen is stuck in Meereen, a city she freed from slavery but over which she is losing control. The Wise Masters (rulers in Yunkai) and the Great Masters (former rulers of Meereen) want to overthrow her because she refuses to allow trading of enslaved people to resume; Astapor, once ruled by the Good Masters, is in the midst of a civil war between enslavers and the enslaved. Daenerys refuses to send her soldiers, emancipated eunuch-soldiers called the Unsullied, to defend Astapor when Yunkai attacks. The slave trade is also important in the Free Cities, so Daenerys has growing opposition there as well. Her soldiers, the Brazen Beasts (her city guard), and freedpeople are dying daily at the hands of the Sons of the Harpy, a secret society of nobles devoted to deposing her.

Aside from the burdens of ruling the fractious city, Daenerys faces pressure to marry Hizdahr zo Loraq, a noble who traces his lineage back to Ghis, the old imperial power of Essos. He claims he can end the killings by the Sons of the Harpy. Meanwhile, Daenerys’s dragon Drogon is on the loose and killing livestock and people (including a little girl). People grow fearful of the other two dragons she has chained in her castle, the Great Pyramid. With Yunkai and armies at her gates, she agrees to a betrothal with Hizdahr, who manages to hold the peace for over a month.

Other potential suitors to marry Daenerys are converging on Meereen. There is Quentyn Martell, a prince of Dorne who is carrying an old agreement made between Dorne and the Targaryens to unite the two families in marriage and move against the Baratheons and Lannisters. His mission is urgent since news may soon leak that Myrcella Baratheon has lost an ear and suffered a wound to her face as vengeance for the death of Prince Oberyn Martell in a previous book in A Song of Ice and Fire. Then there is Young Griff, the protégé of Jon Connington, a Westerosi exile who claims Young Griff is Aegon Targaryen, the only known legitimate grandson of the last Targaryen to rule in Westeros. These two suitors’ paths to Meereen are slow because of the large armies of soldiers and mercenaries gathering to crush Meereen. Victarion Greyjoy, brother of the current king in the Iron Islands, is sailing to Meereen with a horn called Dragonbinder. His king sent him to retrieve Daenerys by using the horn as a lure, but Victarion is arrogant and ambitious, so he means to claim Daenerys for himself.

After having killed Tywin Lannister, Tyrion Lannister is in the company of Jon Connington and Young Griff until misfortune separates him from them. He ends up heading toward Meereen as an enslaved circus performer. Arya Stark is in Braavos serving in the house of the Many-Faced God. In exchange for the chance to become one of the Faceless Men (Braavosi assassins), she has given up her eyesight. She spends her days learning to use her other senses and preparing the bodies of the dead for burial. She becomes an apprentice to the Faceless Men after completing her first assassination successfully. She tells her master that she has given up killing for vengeance, but this is a lie since she recites the names of those who killed and hurt her family.

Other powers are in conflict in Westeros. Short on money and men, Stannis Baratheon, brother of the late King Robert Baratheon, has declared himself his brother’s heir. He is at the Wall demanding that Jon Snow, now lord commander of the Night’s Watch, support him in exchange for pacifying the wildlings, who can garrison the empty, broken castles along the Wall. The wildlings are potential enemies or allies—enemies because they usually refuse to submit to the rule of Westerosi and allies because they are fleeing wights and Others—undead—who are more and more numerous north of the Wall. Jon struggles to gain Stannis’s help without violating the neutrality demanded of the Night’s Watch. He angers his brothers by allowing thousands of wildlings to cross the Wall. He also contends with Melisandre, the priestess of the fire-god R’hllor, as a Northman who follows the old gods, which people of the North worship through weirwood trees, as he distrusts her. She has the gift of prophecy, sometimes achieved by sacrificing a person with the blood of kings in them. Jon sends the son of Mance Rayder away with his soon-to-be maester Sam Tarly to keep the child safe from Melisandre. Melisandre warns Jon that he is in danger of death by treachery and that his sister will come to the Wall seeking aid.

Parallel to these events, Bran, Jojen and Meara Reed, and Hodor continue their quest beyond the Wall to take Bran to the greenseer, whom Bran knows as the Three-Eyed Crow. The greenseer was once one of the children of the forest, the people who lived in Westeros before the ancestors of the First Men, Westeros’s first wave of settler-colonists. The greenseer teaches Bran about the history of Westeros and what powers Bran has by virtue of being a warg, a shapeshifter who can ride in the minds and bodies of other living beings. Bran is disappointed to learn that the greenseer doesn’t have the power to restore function to Bran’s legs. The greenseer is himself captive in the roots of an enormous weirwood tree that has fed on his body. It is his belief that Bran will be the one to replace him. Bran is still a boy who understands what power he could have but can’t resist warging into the body of animals, his direwolf Summer, and even Hodor because he cannot bear to be stuck in one place.

Plots are also unfolding in Winterfell. Theon Greyjoy, known as “Reek” after Ramsay Bolton broke him through torture, is a pawn who helps the Boltons pass off Jeyne Poole, a young noblewoman, as Arya Stark. Ramsay Bolton and Jeyne marry to shore up Roose Bolton’s claim to the North and lure to Winterfell the Northerners who support Stannis. Roose’s plot works. Stannis marches for Castle Winterfell, but snowstorms delay him so long that many of his men die just three days from the castle at Winterfell. Reek tries to escape with Jeyne Poole, but departing soldiers discover their escape attempt. Ramsay sends Jon a note demanding that Jon come to Winterfell; Ramsay claims Stannis is dead, Arya has been recaptured, and Mance will be executed. Jon instructs his men to gather thousands of wildlings trapped at inhospitable Hardhome, where the Others, wights, and starvation are picking off wildlings. Jon convinces the wildlings to come with him to challenge and kill Ramsay. Jon’s brothers turn on him for what they see as treason. They all stab him many times over in an ambush that appears to kill him.

At King’s Landing, Cersei is imprisoned for fornication and plotting the death of the leader of the Faith of the Seven, at present the High Sparrow, who has the support of the commoners and the Warriors’ Sons—an army of the faithful—to back him up. The Faith also accuses Queen Margaery. The Tyrells bring two armies to King’s Landing, a move that saves Margaery from a harsher imprisonment. Kevan Lannister, young King Tommen’s regent and Cersei’s uncle, is an adequate but not particularly savvy man. He refuses to help Cersei because he wants to see her diminished. Cersei is forced to walk through the city naked to atone for her sins. In exchange, her ultimate guilt will be decided in a trial by combat instead of by the Faith, who despise her. Her champion in Ser Robert Strong, a giant man who appears to be dead beneath his armor.

By the end of the novel, Jon Connington takes Young Griff to Westeros and declares the young man to be Aegon Targaryen, legitimate heir of Aerys Targaryen, who was overthrown during the rebellion that brought Robert Baratheon to power. Young Aegon, following advice Tyrion gave him, believes that if he wins Westeros, his aunt (Daenerys) will see him as an equal. If the two marry, it will be hard for anyone to challenge their claim. After a bungled assassination attempt, one likely led by her Hizdahr, Daenerys is wandering in the grasslands. She flew away from her would-be-assassins on her first dragonflight on the back of Drogon. Dothraki discover her wandering the grasslands and take her captive. During her wanderings, she finally concludes that her place is in Westeros, where she hopes to reclaim her family’s throne. Tyrion is nearby hoping to be brought before her should she ever turn up. In King’s Landing, Varys, former spymaster, assassinates Kevan Lannister. Varys means to support Aegon.

A Dance with Dragons is a mix of multiple points of view that sometimes converge. It is an epic work in which dragons are once again at large in the world of Westeros and magicians and priestesses intervene in the struggles for political power. Martin expands this world by including detailed plots set in the lands across the Narrow Sea and beyond the Wall.