North of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, Night's Watch soldiers are attacked by supernatural White Walkers; one escapes but is captured at Winterfell, and Eddard "Ned" Stark, Warden of the North, executes him for desertion. Six orphaned direwolf pups are found and given to the Stark children, including Ned's bastard son, Jon Snow, who must soon make a painful decision about his own future. In King's Landing, Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King, dies suddenly, and King Robert Baratheon, Ned's old friend, travels to Winterfell to summon Ned to court as the new Hand and to propose a marriage between his heir, Joffrey, and Ned's daughter Sansa. Ned reluctantly agrees after learning of a possible threat to the King's life: Lysa Arryn, the widow, sends her sister Catelyn, Ned's wife, a letter claiming that the Lannisters, Queen Cersei's family, murdered Arryn and may be plotting against Robert.
Ned's young son Bran climbs a tall tower and witnesses Cersei and her twin brother, Jaime Lannister, having sex; to hide their incest, Jaime pushes the boy from the window. Across the Narrow Sea, exiled Prince Viserys Targaryen, plotting to reclaim his father's throne usurped by Robert, sells his sister Daenerys in marriage to the Dothraki warlord Drogo in exchange for an army. Daenerys receives three fossilized dragon eggs as a wedding gift.