An expansive, gritty epic following numerous point-of-view characters as rival noble houses, exiles and upstarts maneuver for control of a fractured realm and its coveted Iron Throne; amid courtly intrigue, brutal warfare and shifting alliances, personal loyalties and ambitions collide, unexpected betrayals and deaths reshape fortunes, and dragons and a growing supernatural threat beyond the northern Wall begin to return, threatening to upend the political order and the very survival of the world.