The Dragon Reborn -- the leader long prophesied who will save the world, but in the saving destroy it; the savior who will run mad and kill all those dearest to him -- is on the run from his destiny. Able to touch the One Power, but unable to control it, and with no one to teach him how -- for no man has done it in three thousand years -- Rand al'Thor knows only that he must face the Dark One. But how? Winter has stopped the war -- almost -- yet men...

Chosen by fate to become the Dragon Reborn--savior and destroyer of his world--young Rand al'Thor attempts to outrun his destiny by joining in a mad search for the lost Horn of Valere.

Mat Cauthon flees the Shadow and the Seanchan Empire with the kidnapped Daughter of the Nine Moons, while Perrin Aybara seeks to free his captive wife, and Egwere al'Vere seeks to reunite the Aes Sedai.

In the Third Age, an age of prophecy when the world and time themselves hang in the balance, the Dark One, imprisoned by the Creator, is stirring in Shayol Ghul.