Three rangers of the Night's Watch: Ser Waymar Royce, Will, and Gared have departed from the Wall to investigate reports of wildlings in the Haunted Forest which lies to the north. Will, discovers a number of wildling corpses dismembered and arranged in a strange, ritualistic fashion on the ground. He also finds a dead wildling girl pinned to a tree. He reports back to the others, and Gared believes they should return to the Wall and inform the Nights Watch. Ser Waymar overrides the older Gared's advice and instead insists on seeing the corpses for himself, to determine what killed them. When they reach the site, the bodies have disappeared. Will scouts around for clues, but Gared finds a bloody piece of clothing buried under the snow. Further investigations are curtailed when a tall, humanoid figure with glowing blue eyes, arrives and kills Ser Waymar with ease. Gared attempts to escape but is caught and killed. Will, in extreme horror, sees the dead wildling girl from earlier now walking with blue eyes, and also witnesses Gared's death.

Some time later, Will has fled south of the Wall in terror, rather than return to warn Castle Black of the White Walker threat. He is apprehended by outriders loyal to House Stark, the wardens of the North, and is taken to Lord Eddard Stark. Lord Eddard, decrees that as a deserter from the Watch, Will is an oathbreaker and must die. Will accepts his fate, but tells Eddard about the Walkers first, Eddard carries out the execution himself. Two of Eddard's trueborn sons, Robb and Bran, accompany him to the execution along with his bastard son Jon Snow, his ward, Theon Greyjoy, the master-at-arms Rodrik Cassel and his leading guard Jory Cassel. When Bran asks his father about Will's talk of White Walkers, Eddard dismisses it as a madman's ramblings, insisting that the Walkers have been gone for centuries. The party sets out to return to Winterfell.

In King's Landing, the capital city of the Seven Kingdoms, the bells ring out to commemorate the death of Lord Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King. As the Silent Sisters prepare his body for burial, Queen Cersei Lannister looks on. She is worried that Jon discovered something he shouldn't have, and may have told someone. She confesses her fears to her twin brother, Ser Jaime Lannister of the Kingsguard, but he tells her not to worry, since if the King knew the truth they'd be dead already. She tells him he should be the new Hand of the King, but he doesn't want the job. He considers it too much work. Cersei accuses him of taking nothing seriously.



A raven bears news of Jon Arryn's death to Winterfell, where Lady Catelyn Stark informs Eddard. He is particularly stricken because Arryn served as a father-figure to him, when he was fostered at the Eyrie. She also tells him that King Robert Baratheon and much of the royal court rides for Winterfell. Eddard realizes that King Robert means to name him as the Hand to replace Jon Arryn. He ponders refusing, feeling his place is at Winterfell.