A Feast for Crows recap

With the great war largely spent, the survivors scramble amid the wreckage. Queen Cersei, ruling as regent for her young son Tommen, grows ever more paranoid, turning on allies and kin alike. To undercut her rivals, she rearms the religious militants of the Faith and empowers their austere leader, a decision that swiftly rebounds upon her. Jaime, sickened by his sister, rides into the river lands to bring the last sieges to a bloodless close and drifts further from her. Brienne of Tarth roams the ruined countryside searching for Sansa, who is in truth hidden in the Vale, being schooled in intrigue by Petyr Baelish. In Braavos, Arya begins her strange apprenticeship among the servants of a death god. On the Iron Islands, the ironborn hold a kingsmoot after their lord's death, and the fearsome exile Euron Greyjoy seizes the crown of salt and rock. In Dorne, a plot to crown a young princess collapses in blood. Cersei's schemes finally trap her: accused of adultery and treason, she is seized and imprisoned by the very Faith she armed.

Previously: Eddard Stark's execution and his son Robb's rise as King in the North set off a war among rival claimants to the Iron Throne. By the end of A Storm of Swords the Stark cause lay in ruins. Robb Stark and his mother Catelyn were butchered at the treacherous Red Wedding. The boy king Joffrey was poisoned at his own wedding feast; his brother Tommen was crowned in his place, with Cersei Lannister ruling as regent. Tyrion Lannister, wrongly condemned for Joffrey's murder, killed his father Tywin and fled into exile. Jaime Lannister returned to the capital maimed, having lost his sword hand. Sansa Stark was hidden away in the Vale by Petyr Baelish under a false name, while Arya Stark took ship for the free city of Braavos. Jon Snow, having repelled a wildling assault at the Wall, was chosen Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, with Stannis Baratheon encamped nearby. Daenerys Targaryen conquered the eastern slaver cities and settled to rule in Meereen. This volume follows the aftermath in the south and the west, while other threads unfold elsewhere at the same time.

Cersei Lannister's grasping regency ends in disaster. Having empowered the militant Faith to strike at her enemies, she is herself denounced for adultery and treason and thrown into a cell to await the Faith's judgment, stripped of power and abandoned. Her plea for help reaches Jaime, who reads her letter and coldly refuses, choosing to burn it and turn away, the breach between the twins now open. Brienne, having tracked the roads in search of Sansa, falls into the hands of a band of vengeful outlaws led by a hanged and revived Catelyn Stark, and is given a brutal choice between a sword and a noose, screaming a single word as the volume closes. Sansa remains hidden in the Vale, growing more capable under Baelish's tutelage. Arya, having killed on the order of her mysterious masters, is struck blind as a test of her devotion. Samwell reaches the southern city of Oldtown to begin his maester's training, though the ancient Maester Aemon dies on the journey. The ironborn, now led by the ruthless Euron Greyjoy, look outward toward conquest, and the realm settles into an uneasy, exhausted lull with no true peace in sight.