Some time later and elsewhere beyond the Wall, continuing with his greensight training, the Three-Eyed Raven, possessor of all men’s memories, shows a young boy named Bran Stark a new vision. As they walk together along a lush green valley they quickly come upon a heart tree amidst a spiral formation of standing stones. As Bran notices someone with a similar appearance to a small creature running towards the tree through the stones, he quickly follows. Bran and the Raven stop when they see a small group of Children of the Forest congregated together, the first inhabitants of the world. As the Children talk amongst themselves, they then looking eagerly at a captive bound to the tree. When Leaf starts approaching the captor with a shard of dragonglass, the Raven then realizes the vision they have stumbled upon. One of the Children named Leaf then forces the dragonglass into the captive's chest as he screams when it’s buried entirely inside of him. He does not die, however, instead his eyes turn icy blue and the man becomes the very first White Walker created, the Night King himself. This confirms the vision dates back to some twelve-thousand years ago. Bran immediately comes out of his vision and confronts Leaf about her direct part in creating the White Walkers millenniums ago. Leaf explains that they were at war with the First Men and were desperate for protection.

Some time later, Bran Stark is the only one in the cave awake and has been anxious to warg back into the weirwood tree since the last vision. When he succeeds in warging back alone, he does return to the same location where he saw the creation of the Night King, only now the tree and the spiraled stones are covered in snow. As he gazes around, he sees the army of the dead in the distance. Bran then slowly walks towards and then through the army until he comes to a space occupied by four White Walkers, including the Night King as well.  When Bran becomes aware that the Night King and the dead are now able to see him in the vision, the Night King violently grabs his arm. Bran breaks out of the vision with a scream that wakes the others. The Raven urgently informs Bran, Meera Reed and the simple-minded Hodor that the Night King is now able to locate Bran, who is now marked on his forearm, and can also bypass the powerful magic that has been keeping the dead out of the cave. As a result, the Raven insists they all must leave immediately, but first Bran must complete his training in becoming the new Three-Eyed Raven. Bran asks whether he is ready, and the Raven informs that he isn’t, at which point Bran's eyes whiten as he enters another vision.

Shortly thereafter, with Bran and the Raven still in a vision, Meera Reed and Hodor are preparing to leave when they notice the air is so cold their breath is visible, indicating the arrival of the army of the dead outside of the cave. Meera runs outside to witness the Children of the Forest using magic projectiles to fend the White Walkers off, but are overwhelmed. They light a fire around the entrance which prevents the wights from entering but eventually the Night King and the Walkers extinguish a pathway and walk through. The wights end up climbing over the weirwood and dropping through roots at the top of the cave. Having ran back inside, Meera desperately tries to get Bran out of the vision and attempts to get the frightened Hodor to carry Bran, to no avail. Using a dragonglass spear, Meera kills the first Walker that enters, and fights alongside Leaf and the remaining Children of the Forest to try to fend off the wights until Bran wakes up. Wights then begin to swarm the cave, killing all of the Children except for Leaf, as Meera starts yelling at Bran to warg into Hodor. In his latest vision, Bran is viewing the past at his ancestral home of Winterfell when he hears Meera's cries to warg into Hodor and the Three-Eyed Raven tells him to listen to her. Bran then wargs into the present-day Hodor in the cave and, as result, also wargs into Wylis, the young version of Hodor in his vision. In the cave, while Bran's body is placed on a sled and Hodor starts hauling him down a tunnel, his direwolf Summer is killed attacking the wights. As the wights are closing in on them, Leaf sacrifices herself, buying the others enough time to get to the end of the tunnel. While the Raven and Bran are still sharing a vision, the Night King kills the Three-Eyed Raven in order to erase all memory of humans before his planned annihilation for them. The Raven’s figure within Bran's vision then blows away as ashes. With some difficulty Hodor pushes the cave door open and pulls Bran through, coming back to help Meera just as the wights approach. Meera tells Hodor to bar the exit, shouting to "Hold the door!". Inside Bran's vision, Wylis notices Bran, who links the present Hodor to the past Wylis. Wylis then begins to seize when he enters the mind of his future self and falls to the ground convulsing while Meera’s command. Eventually, "hold the door" slurs into "Hodor," as his mental state deteriorates and it becomes apparent this is the moment Hodor lost the ability to say any other words, and his destiny was fixed. Present-day Hodor braces himself against the door long enough for Meera to disappear into the snow with Bran's body on the sled. Inevitably, the wights break through parts of the wood and begin scratching and tearing away at Hodor’s face. With no possibility of escape for him, all that is shown at the end is young Wylis in the past seizing while crying out “Hodor”.

Some time later, the Night King leads a column of White Walkers riding undead horses, as well as a horde of wights, through a snowstorm. Their numbers now include at least three undead  giants as they continue their march towards the Wall in their attempt to breach into the Seven Kingdoms. Meanwhile,  Bran Stark, who comes out of this vision, and an exhausted Meera Reed reach the gate beneath Castle Black, home of the Night’s Watch. They are greeted by the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, Eddison Tollett, and several armed Black Brothers. When Eddison asks them to verify their identities, Bran responds by recognizing Edd from his visions that showed him the conflicts at the Fist of the First Men, as well as the massacre at Hardhome, observing that he‘s encountered the army of the dead. Eddison decides to bring the pair inside, glancing nervously at the increasingly hostile lands beyond. Some weeks later, at his home of Winterfell, Bran sits alone by the weirwood tree and wargs into a flock of ravens in order to inspect the whereabouts of the army of the dead. Through the ravens, Bran eventually comes upon them as they travel south towards Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, a fortress guarded by the Night’s Watch. Bran’s reconnaissance continues until the Night King spots the ravens, at which Bran then severs the connection. He urgently commands messenger-ravens to be sent across the kingdoms.

Days later, Jon Snow leads a hunting party in the lands beyond the Wall so they can capture a wight in order to prove to the Seven Kingdoms of their existence and prepare for the coming war against the army of the dead. While navigating through a mountain range, the party sees a White Walker leading a column of wights marching through the canyon below. The ranging party ambushes them and Jon manages to kill the Walker with his Valyrian steel sword, causing most of the wights associated with him to disintegrate themselves upon his death. The rest of the group manages to capture the only unaffected wight, who then screeches for help, which echoes throughout the canyon. They realize their captive's howls have drawn the attention of a massive host of wights now heading their way. Jon orders Gendry Baratheon back to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea to bring news to his ally, the dragon queen Daenerys Targaryen. The wights then pursue the group over a lake of weak ice, as they flee toward a large stone island. One of the party trips and falls behind; a few of the horde tackles him and the combined weight breaks the ice. This causes a chain reaction of breaking ice all around the rock until the horde slows to a stop to avoid the water. Throughout the night, the hunting party wait in the middle of the ice while encircled by the army of the undead. Meanwhile, Gendry eventualy reaches Eastwatch's outer gates but collapses from exhaustion. Ser Davos Seaworth and several guards attend to him as Gendry tells him to prepare a raven for Daenerys. Davos then orders to bring the maester to tend to Gendry.

In the morning, Jon and his company awake to find that a Red Priest named Thoros of Myr has died from his wounds from an earlier attack by an undead polar bear. Ser Beric Dondarrion and Sandor Clegane pay their last respects to their friend, with the former praying for the Lord of Light to guard them as the latter assures him freezing to death is said to be one of the better ways to die. With Jon Snow’s insistence, they burn the body with Ser Beric's flaming sword so that Thoros can't be reanimated by the White Walkers. The wights watch while their captive wight struggles under its hood and restraints. Ser Jorah Mormont then proposes killing the wight but Jon counters that they need to keep it as evidence. Beric suggests that Jon kill the Night King, who has just arrived on horseback. He explains that since that they've seen by killing a Walker it destroys the wights they’ve resurrected, killing the Night King, the original White Walker, it might destroy them all. Beric then adds that the Lord of Light has not resurrected Jon himself for no reason, but Sandor reminds him that they have just lost their priest, and Beric is now down to his last life.

As the horde of wights continue to wait out the broken lake, a bored Sandor Clegane hurls two rocks at one of the undead minions, knocking its jaw off. The second however, skids across the ice, and both the party and the undead quickly realize the ice, which has hardened overnight, is strong enough again to support their weight. In ever-increasing numbers, the horde starts racing towards the group that remain encircled in the middle of the lake. The ranging party start to hack and slash through the initial run of wights with their blades, but are unable to stem the tide. With the group quickly overwhelmed, Jon orders them to fall back to the highest part of the rock island they stand upon. Tormund Giantsbane is overwhelmed by several wights and is nearly dragged under the ice, but is saved by Sandor, who drags him back onto the island. The group continues fighting against the wights. One of the wildlings then suddenly falls off a ledge and is ripped apart by the creatures, who begin to scramble up the ledge towards the men. When all seems lost, Daenerys Targaryen then arrives with her three dragons, who swiftly sweep through several groups of wights with dragonfire. Hundreds of wights are burned to ashes while others collapse under the ice that has been melted by dragonfire. Jon and his party rush to Daenerys and her dragon Drogon, dragging their captive wight with them, while Viserion and  Rhaegal provide covering fire from above. Meanwhile, the Night King obtains an icy javelin from one of his lieutenants and hurls it at Viserion, scoring a direct hit. Viserion is struck in the neck and plunges helplessly into freefall, shrieking in agony as blood and fire pour from the fatal wound. Drogon and Rhaegal cry out for their brother, but are powerless to help him as Daenerys watches in horror and sorrow. Viserion crashes onto the frozen lake, shattering the ice, and slowly sinks beneath it. As the Night King readies another spear, Jon hollers at Daenerys and company to leave with her remaining dragons before he himself is dragged under the ice by two wights. Daenerys and the survivors of Jon's ranging expedition then flee with Drogon and Rhaegal before the Night King can kill them. He hurls the second javelin, but Drogon narrowly dodges it. With the dragons gone, the Night King and his army leave the scene. Within moments of their retreat, Jon climbs out of the ice and regains he sword. Jon is then quickly spotted and pursued by a large horde. Before the wights can finish him off, however, Jon is able to escape on horseback with assistance from his uncle Benjen Stark, who stays behind and fights to his death in order to fend off the horde.

Shortly thereafter, after returning to the frozen lake, hundreds of wights use several large chains to drag the dragon Viserion's corpse out of the water, as the Night King and one of his lieutenants watch. When the dragon's corpse is dragged far enough out of the lake, the Night King walks over and places his hand upon Viserion's snout. All is quiet for a moment... and then Viserion's eyes snap open, shining a depthless, icy blue. Some time later, at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, Tormund and Ser Beric stand atop the Wall when the pair see movement at the edge of the Haunted Forest. White Walkers begin to emerge, followed shortly by hundreds of wights. Despite their numbers, however, the dead don't have anything that could possibly get them past the barrier. Suddenly, a screeching roar mixed with the heavy thumping of huge wings beating the air can be heard, as the resurrected dragon Viserion swoops down with the Night King riding on his back. In a burst of bright blue flames, Viserion demolishes some of the platforms atop the Wall and then turns his flames against the Wall itself. The Night's Watch and the wildlings alike desperately try to evacuate as the Wall begins to crumble, with the entire eastern extremity collapsing into the sea, leaving a gap between the Wall and the sea large enough for the army of the dead to cross. A road now open to them, the White Walkers direct the thousands of wights to begin their march into the Seven Kingdoms, as Viserion and Night King soar overhead. The Great War has now begun.

Some time after breaching the Wall, the Night King leads his army of the dead to Winterfell where Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen await with their combined armies. Upon their arrival, Daenerys and Jon ride Drogon and Rhaegal away from the castle, to not alert the Night King to their presence. They view the battle from the west in the distance and the Dothraki army charges the army of the dead, but when the Dothraki are slaughtered, Daenerys breaks away from Jon's plan to wait for the Night King and attacks the army of the dead with dragonfire, Jon following behind to assist on Rhaegal. They make strafing runs on the undead army, just behind the faltering human forces. Thousands of wights are incinerated: for a short time this stems their tide, but more keep coming. Daenerys and Jon's visibility is then cut off when the White Walkers summon a blizzard. High in the skies above Winterfell, Daenerys and Drogon are suddenly attacked by the Night King on Viserion, but she is able to evade him. When she finds Jon above the clouds as well, the Night King has disappeared and makes a run towards the godswood where Bran is waiting as bait. As Jon is aware the Night King is aiming to take out Bran, the new Three Eyed Raven, he attacks him from atop Rhaegal as they approach the castle walls. Rhaegal clashes with the undead Viserion and a battle between the two factions ensues in the skies above Winterfell. Daenerys quickly approaches on Drogon and collides with Viserion with such impact that the Night King is spilled from his mount, plummeting to the ground, while Drogon tears into Viserion. Rhaegal, however, is badly wounded enough that he needs to make a forced landing, dropping Jon on the ground again before fleeing. Drogon sends the badly injured Viserion crashing into the castle while Jon regains himself on the ground, not far from the Night King, who survived the fall and is proceeding on foot to the breach the godswood. Daenerys reaches the Night King, and with the command of "Dracarys!", has Drogon blast him with dragonfire. When the smoke dissipates, however, it’s confirmed that dragonfire cannot kill the Night King, who is completely unharmed. The Night King still has one ice javelin left and as he readies to throw it at Drogon, Daenerys flees and manages to narrowly dodge the shot. Jon continues to pursue the Night King and just as he is about to reach him, the Night King silently turns to him and raises his arms, resurrecting all of Winterfell's defenders who died in the battle up to this point. Jon finds himself surrounded again and struggles to fight off the new wights, as the Night King continues towards the godswood. Daenerys appears with Drogon and burns the wights surrounding Jon. He then calls to Daenerys, planning to pursue the Night King, and Daenerys tells Jon to go. After Jon runs off, Daenerys and Drogon land but stay on the ground for moments too long, finding Drogon being swarmed by dozens of wights. He just barely manages to fly away still covered in them, but Daenerys is knocked off his back in the process. However, Ser Jorah Mormont appears and helps Daenerys fight off an overwhelming number of wights. Meanwhile, Jon fights his way back into the courtyard of the castle - only to find himself dodging the grounded, but still very dangerous Viserion, who is so badly wounded that huge rents in his body leak great bursts of icey fire around him. In the godswood, the wights stop attacking Bran’s last defender and they step aside to make a path for the arrival of the Night King himself, followed by the other White Walkers. After quickly taking out the last man standing, the Night King reaches the helpless Bran and stares down in triumph. When the Night King draws the sword sheathed on his back for the killing blow, Arya Stark manages to slip past the other White Walkers and launch a surprise rear attack with a Valyrian steel dagger. Though the Night King reacts swiftly enough to catch her by the neck and arm, Bran’s sister drops her dagger from the arm he is restraining. Arya then catches it with her free hand and then plunges it into his heart, causing the Night King to shatter into ice. As predicted, with his death, the White Walkers, Viserion and the entire army of the dead begin to fall, as the magic animating them dies with their king. The ancient threat of the White Walkers has now been destroyed forever.