This book is fantastic. So much world building done in increments to keep you understanding but wanting more. Along with being a thrilling read, the book deals with human issues such as depression, failure, anxiety, morality, and many other important traits.

The book opens with a brief history of the Kingdom of Alethkar. King Gavilar has made peace with a people called the Parshendi, seemingly primitive warriors. On the night that the peace treaty is to be signed, Szeth, the Assassin in White, is sent to kill the King. He is bound in service to the Parshendi as "truthless" and is a "Surgebinder" granting him special abilities through the use of Stormlight. After smashing his way through the Kings guards, Szeth is successful and the King falls.
The main story begins with Kaladin fighting in Amaram's army. Kaladin seeks out the struggling and new recruits and strives to protect them. He is driven and dedicated. After this brief introduction of his character, years pass and Kaladin is now a slave. The reason he became is slave he gives is that he killed a man and let one live who he shouldn't. He has been through several masters always trying to help others and escape. As the son of a surgeon, he wants to help and protect those around him at all costs. The constant failure and death he sees from his own actions has worn him down into a shell of who he was before. The only companion he keeps is a spren that will not leave him alone.
Shallan is from a quiet reclusive household in Jah Keved. Her father has died and she and a wardship to Jasnah Kholin the daughter of the late King Gavilar are the only hope for her family now. Her first interaction with Jasnah does not go according to plan. There has been an accident and the King of Kharbranth has requested that Jasnah help save his trapped family. Jasnah quizzed Shallan to see if she is worth her time as a ward while preparing to Soulcast. Soulcasting is the art of changing something from one thing to another. Artists carve staircases in wood and have them soulcast to marble when finished. Food can be created, and in this case a large foundation stone can be turned to smoke allowing the trapped to escape.
Kaladin has been sold once again but this time to an army fighting at the very battle he was hoping to join. Hope is dashed when he becomes a bridge man on the Shattered Plains. During his first bridge run, Kaladin barely survives. Running while carrying a bridge for hours and then running at the front while helping get it across a chasm under Parshendi arrows. Weeks pass in this same pattern. Kaladin is surrounded by death and failure at every turn. He always survives only to see those around him die. He must be cursed. One night while reflecting on this fact he walks to the "Honor" chasm where bridge men are allowed the only mercy left to them. Suicide. While preparing to step out into the emptiness below Syl, the spren who has been following him, speaks to him. She expresses her desire for Kaladin to go back to the way things were before, to be happy, to live. Kaladin remembers his family, his brother who died, and at rock bottom realizes that he has nothing to lose any more. If he tries one more time, what is failure? The worst has already happened to him. He leaves the chasm, determined to make something of himself and the other bridge men in Bridge Four.
Dalinar, Gavilar's brother and High Prince of Alethkar has been seeing visions during the High Storms. He is being drawn to a book that Gavilar suggested to him towards the end of his life. With a paranoid Nephew as King, Dalinar does everything he can to live up to Gavilar's memory. He strives to live how Gavilar would have wanted. He has taken the teachings that Gavilar was drawn too and adopted them into his house hold. We learn that the war surrounding Gavilar's death has become nothing more than a game to the other High Princes. Chasm Fiends spawn on the shattered plains and the Alethi hunt them for their gem hearts, worth fortunes. Killing Parshendi has become a secondary objective. While on one such hunt, Dalinar questions the war and why they are fighting. He mistakenly voices this to the King who thinks him cowardly. While setting up for the hunt, things go badly. A massive chasm fiend attacks the company. King Elhokar attacks it thinking it great sport but is thrown from his horse. In order to save the king Dalinar risks his life to intercept the killing blow from the beast. As the claw hammers down at Elhokar, Dalinar materializes and catches it stunning all onlookers and allowing his men to gain the upper hand and win the fight.
Kaladin wakes the next morning and gets the other members of Bridge Four out of bed. He starts enforcing discipline among them, humanizing them again instead of treating them like cast off tools. To keep his men alive, he and Syl hunt rare plants on the plains during work duty, enlisting some of the other bridge men to help. The funds that they raise allow him to buy supplies and medicine for his men. Instead of dying on the plateau runs, he is able to start saving their lives. The trust of his men is not easily won. One night Kaladin starts a tradition of making stew before bed. All his men are unable to resist the additional tantalizing food. They start sharing personal things with one another, names, backgrounds, hopes, things that once were lost.
Shallan has been studying with Jasnah for some time now. She has been observing her use of the soulcaster in secret trying to find a time to steal it. One way that Shallan has excelled is through her art. Lately however, strange figures plague her drawings. One night Jasnah takes Shallan into the city for an object lesson. They travel a dangerous but direct route to the theater district. Jasnah knows that the route has been marked by several murders in the past weeks. When confronted by attackers Jasnah soulcasts two into fire and crystal. Two more attempt to flee but are struck down with lightning. Shallan is tasked with determining if what Jasnah did was "right".
Kaladin has gotten his squad into shape. He has a new idea on how to keep his men safe during assaults. During a bridge run he and his men use a new technique to avoid arrows. Other bridge crews seeing this try to imitate him and falter costing High Prince Sadeas the battle. As punishment his is strung up in a High Storm, a death sentence. Kaladin surprises everyone including himself, by living through it with the help of Syl. We learn more about his past and that as a soldier that he killed a shard bearer to protect Amaram. Amaram slaughtered Kaladin's company to a man and claimed the shard blade as his own.
Dalinar is trying to make sense of the visions he is seeing at each High Storm. With the help of Navani, we learn that his lunatic ramblings are an all but forgotten language. With renewed faith in himself he tries to unite the High Princes together to unify the kingdom that his brother fought for. He starts doing joint plateau assaults with Sadeas and had great success.
After the night where Jasnah killed the men in the ally, Shallan worked up the courage to steal her soulcaster. She remains however to try to unlock its secrets. The creatures that she sketches have started becoming more frequent disruptions. One night, Shallan feels surrounded by them and they speak to her. Inadvertently, she soulcasts a goblet into blood. Panicking and trying to hide what she has done, she fakes a suicide attempt. Upon waking the theft is discovered and Shallan cast out.
Kaladin and his men continue training. He keeps working on learning what he can do with stormlight. Sadeas and Dalinar go on a joint bridge run and Kaladin's squad is used. During the battle, Dalinar extends his army, expecting Sadeas to do the same to hammer the Parshendi from both sides. Sadeas pulls back allowing Dalinar to be surrounded. He orders all his bridge men to leave abandoning Dalinar. Kaladin and his squad lag behind the others in Sadeas' army. When they are out of site, they return to try to help Dalinar. Kaladin absorbs all the stormlight he can and singlehandedly fights his way through the Parshendi to Dalinar. He lames a Parshendi shard bearer saving Dalinar. The remaining group retreats back to the Alethi war camp.
Upon arrival Dalinar confronts Sadeas. Not wanting to divide the kingdom in war, he says that he understands why Sadeas did what he did. To repay his debt to Bridge Four, Dalanar purcheses them, and all other bridgement from Sadeas by giving him his shardblade.
The book concludes with Dalinar and Kaladin discussing how to move forward. Kaladin and Bridge Four are made into Dalinar's personal guards. Dalinar confronts his nephew the King and takes direct control of the war effort. He will unify Alethkar by force if needed. Shallan confronts Jasnah with the fact that she knows she can soulcast without the aid of a fabreal showing that she can do it as well. The two unite again to learn what happened to the void bringers, or as Jasnah has discovered, the Parshmen....