Dalinar leads the human armies into an escalating war with the Parshendi, while Shalland and Jasnah search for a mythical city to secure humanity's survival, and Kaladin struggles to master his Windrunner powers.

After forming a coalition of human resistance against the enemy invasion, Dalinar Kholin and his Knights Radiant have spent a year fighting a protracted, brutal war. Neither side has gained an advantage, and the threat of a betrayal by Dalinar's crafty ally Taravangian looms over every strategic move. Now, as new technological discoveries by Navani Kholin's scholars begin to change the face of the war, the enemy prepares a bold and dangerous operation....