Game Of Thrones

The northern border of the Seven Kingdoms is fortified by the Wall, an ancient barrier of ice 700 feet tall and 300 miles long, manned by the brotherhood of the Night's Watch. In the "lawless lands" north of the Wall, a small patrol of Rangers from the Night's Watch encounter the fabled Others of legend, and are slain except for one. Driven to madness, the survivor flees south of the Wall, where he is captured and executed as a deserter.

Lord Eddard Stark is the patriarch of House Stark, one of the major noble houses of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and ancestral rulers of the North. Near the castle of Winterfell, Eddard's children discover a dead direwolf and five of its pups still alive. As the direwolf is the symbol of the Starks, Eddard allows each of his five children to keep one of the pups as pet. A sixth pup is discovered a short distance away from the others. It is a mute albino, and this one is given to Jon Snow, the bastard son of Lord Eddard Stark.

King Robert Baratheon, Eddard's childhood friend, journeys to Winterfell with his family to ask Eddard to become Hand of the King, the top advisor and military commander in the realm, due to the death of the previous Hand, Lord Jon Arryn. Eddard's wife, Catelyn Stark, receives a letter from her sister Lysa Arryn, stating that Jon Arryn's death was a murder plotted by Queen Cersei and her powerful family, the Lannisters. Though reluctant to leave his duties and family, Eddard is convinced by his wife to accept the position in order to investigate Jon Arryn's death.

Eddard's middle son Bran Stark is engaging in his favorite activity, climbing Winterfell castle's walls and towers, when he accidentally sees Queen Cersei and her twin brother Jaime Lannister having incestuous relations. To protect their secret affair, Jaime throws the boy out of a tower window.

Across the sea in the Free City of Pentos, Viserys Targaryen lives in exile with his fourteen year-old sister Daenerys. He is the son and sole-surviving male heir of King Aerys II, who was usurped by King Robert. Viserys arranges to sell his sister in marriage to Khal Drogo, warlord of a horde of nomadic Dothraki horse warriors, planning to use Drogo's army to reclaim the Iron Throne of Westeros for House Targaryen. Among the wedding gifts are three petrified dragon eggs, rare artifacts that are regarded as valuable but useless, since dragons have been extinct for centuries.