Winter's Heart recap

As the Seanchan occupy Ebou Dar, Mat Cauthon recovers in hiding and is drawn to the enemy heir, Tuon, the Daughter of the Nine Moons, whom prophecy says he must marry. When his cover collapses he escapes the city in a daring flight, carrying Tuon away with him. Meanwhile Rand resolves to do the impossible: to cleanse the male half of the One Power of the Dark One's taint, the curse that drives men who channel mad. Gathering channelers and the immense sa'angreal called the Choedan Kal, and shielded by Nynaeve and a circle of allies, he channels a torrent of the Power at the tainted, evil-soaked ruins of Shadar Logoth, using one poison to burn out the other. Several of the Forsaken sense the vast weave and attack to stop him, and a desperate battle rages, but Rand succeeds. Saidin runs clean for the first time in three thousand years. Elayne, in Caemlyn, gathers support for her claim to Andor's throne, while Perrin's search for the captive Faile goes on.

Rand al'Thor, a young man from the isolated Two Rivers, was revealed as the Dragon Reborn, the rebirth of the champion who broke the world in the Age of Legends and is prophesied to fight the Dark One at the Last Battle. With his boyhood friends Mat and Perrin, both ta'veren who bend chance around them, and the village women Egwene and Nynaeve, he was drawn out of hiding by the Aes Sedai Moiraine into a world of channelers, prophecy, and war. Rand claimed the sword Callandor in Tear, crossed to the Aiel Waste and was accepted as their foretold leader, and took Cairhien and Illian, killing several of the Forsaken, the Dark One's freed lieutenants. He founded the Black Tower to train men who can channel as weapons for the Last Battle, despite the madness the tainted male Power brings. The Aes Sedai split: the White Tower under Elaida deposed and imprisoned the previous Amyrlin, while sisters who fled raised the young Egwene as a rival Amyrlin, now besieging Tar Valon. The invading Seanchan seized coastal cities and captured women who can channel to enslave them. Most recently Mat was buried under rubble during their attack on Ebou Dar, and Perrin's wife, Faile, was carried off by the renegade Shaido Aiel.

Winter's Heart ends with two turning points. Mat Cauthon breaks out of Seanchan-held Ebou Dar and flees north, taking with him Tuon, the Daughter of the Nine Moons and heir to the Seanchan empire, beginning the strange courtship prophecy demands of them. Far away, at the cursed ruins of Shadar Logoth, Rand al'Thor accomplishes what every Aes Sedai believed impossible. Using the great sa'angreal Choedan Kal, and linked through Nynaeve and Cadsuane's circle, he pits the tainted male Power against the ancient evil of the dead city and cleanses saidin of the Dark One's corruption. The Forsaken who come to stop him are driven off, and for the first time since the Breaking of the World men can channel without the certainty of madness, though few yet believe it has truly happened. Elayne consolidates her position in Caemlyn as she pursues the Lion Throne, and Perrin, still without Faile, continues his relentless hunt for the Shaido who hold her.