The Fifth Elephant recap

Lord Vetinari sends Commander Vimes to the wild country of Uberwald as Ankh-Morpork's ambassador, ostensibly for the coronation of a new dwarf Low King but really to secure trade in the region's fat and mineral wealth. Vimes, his wife Lady Sybil, and a small party of watchmen arrive to find the dwarfs in crisis: the Scone of Stone, the ancient relic on which the Low King is crowned, has been stolen. Vimes treats the diplomatic emergency as a criminal investigation, tangling with scheming deep-down dwarfs, vampires, and the werewolf clan of Uberwald, led by Angua's violent brother Wolfgang. Angua returns home ahead of the others and Carrot resigns from the Watch to follow her. Back in Ankh-Morpork, the Watch nearly falls apart under Colon's mismanagement. Vimes uncovers that the theft is part of a plot to control who becomes Low King, survives a lethal hunt across the snow, and exposes the conspiracy in time for the true relic's fate to be revealed and the rightful coronation to proceed.

Previously, in earlier books: Sam Vimes rose from a broken-down captain to Commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch and, by marrying the aristocratic dragon-breeder Lady Sybil, became Duke of Ankh. He built the Watch into a large, mixed force of humans, dwarfs, trolls, and others, among them Captain Carrot, a human raised by dwarfs who is rumoured to have a claim to the city's vacant throne but prefers to stay a watchman, and Sergeant Angua, a werewolf who left her homeland behind. In a recent crisis, when a risen island nearly triggered a war between Ankh-Morpork and the empire of Klatch, Vimes refused to treat murder as patriotism and helped stop the conflict before it began. As this book opens, he is a reluctant fixture of the city's ruling class, still happiest working as a policeman.

Lord Vetinari appoints Commander Vimes, to his dismay, as Ankh-Morpork's ambassador to Uberwald, a remote and dangerous land of dwarfs, vampires, and werewolves. The official occasion is the coronation of a new dwarf Low King; the real business is trade and influence over the region's valuable resources. Vimes and Lady Sybil prepare to travel far from the city Vimes knows, into a place where he has no authority and few of the rules he relies on apply.

Vimes exposes the plot behind the theft of the Scone of Stone: a faction of traditionalist dwarfs arranged the crime and a forged replacement to control the succession. The forger's work is revealed, and the Low King, Rhys Rhysson, is properly crowned, using the moment to make a startling public admission about the relic that defuses its power as a weapon. Wolfgang von Uberwald, having hunted Vimes across the frozen countryside, is defeated, ending the werewolf clan's bid for dominance. Angua and Carrot reconcile and return together to Ankh-Morpork and the Watch. Vimes, glad to be done with diplomacy, heads home, where the chaos Colon caused is quietly undone. Lady Sybil shares happy news with Vimes: she is expecting their first child. Ankh-Morpork's interests in Uberwald are secured, and Vimes returns to the job he actually wants.