A Spoiler-Packed Recap of What Happens in the His Dark Materials Books

Known in some markets as "Northern Lights," "The Golden Compass" introduces us to 12-year-old Lyra Belacqua, an orphan girl who lives at Oxford in a parallel world where human spirits reside in part outside of the human body in the form of an animal companion called a daemon. In the opening of the novel, Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon, aka Pan, witness her philosophical, adventurous uncle, Lord Asriel, nearly being poisoned, presumably because of his research into "Dust," the elementary particles that make up the universe and that, he believes, hold the key to interdimensional travel.

Lord Asriel's work with Dust is dangerous because it undermines the power of the Magisterium, the church that rules the world Lyra lives in. Directly following the near-poisoning, which Lyra warns Asriel about, Lyra meets Mrs. Coulter, a mysterious socialite who decides that she wants Lyra to go North with her as an assistant. And, before she leaves, the college Master secretly entrusts her with a device: an alethiometer, or truth-telling device, which Lyra is inexplicably able to use with no training.

However, shortly after, Lyra finds out that her best friend, Roger, is kidnapped by a child-snatching gang known as the Gobblers who are rumored to be experimenting on children.

Lyra sets out on an adventure to rescue Roger, but not before having to escape the guardianship of Mrs. Coulter, who she learns is the leader of the Gobblers, which is formally called the General Oblation Board. With the help of polar bear king Iorek Byrnison, his human friend Lee Scoresby, and a group of Gyptians, Lyra discovers the truth: the Gobblers are severing children from their daemons in deadly experiments.

Her team is able to rescue Roger, and they flee to where Lord Asriel has been exiled. Lyra learns that her parents are actually Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel, and Asriel betrays her by severing Roger's bond with his daemon, killing Roger and blasting open a hole to a parallel universe.

Believing Dust to be a force of evil now, Lyra vows to follow and stop Asriel.

"The Subtle Knife" begins, ostensibly, in "our" world, where 12-year-old Will Parry cares for his ill mother. He accidentally passes through a portal to another world, where he meets Lyra and her daemon, Pan.

While Lyra attempts to research Dust, she and Will fall into the power of Sir Charles Latrom, who steals Lyra's alethiometer and forces the children to steal a mysterious knife in exchange for its return. Lyra realizes that Sir Charles is actually Lord Boreal, an associate of Mrs. Coulter's from her world. They learn that the knife has the ability to cut any material, including the fabric between worlds, and Will becomes the knife's next bearer.

The knife comes from Cittàgazze, a city in a deserted world, which the children learn is haunted by soul-eating Spectres. Mrs. Coulter tricks Boreal into telling her where the knife is, then kills him, and she uses the Spectres, which she can control, to force a witch to tell her a prophecy about Lyra.

Lyra, it turns out, is destined to be a second Eve (as in, Adam and Eve), so Mrs. Coulter plans to kill her rather than risk a second fall of humankind. Meanwhile, Will finds a pair of angels who intend to guide him to Asriel, but when he goes to get Lyra, he finds her guardian witches dead and her gone.

"The Amber Spyglass" picks up right where the second book ends. While Lyra is kept captive by Mrs. Coulter, the Magisterium is trying to find her to kill her and prevent the fall of humanity. Will, meanwhile, finds Lord Asriel, who is planning war against the Magisterium, and Lyra's physicist ally, Mary Malone, is stalked by an agent of the Magisterium and enters another world. Will is able to rescue Lyra, but while she was unconscious, she met Roger's spirit in the world of the dead and promised to help him.

Will and Lyra are able to strike a deal in the land of the dead to let the dead escape and be reintegrated into the fabric of the universe. When they return, a great battle ensues, with the forces of Asriel, Coulter, Will, Lyra, and their allies against the Authority and the angel Metatron.

Coulter and Asriel are destroyed while taking down Metatron, and Lyra and Will are able to find their daemons and escape into another world. After they share a first kiss, they learn that the openings between worlds are allowing Dust to escape, which creates Spectres. All windows must be closed except for one, and instead of leaving the window between their worlds open so they can be together, they choose to leave the one open for the dead, then Will breaks the knife. They make a pact to go to the same place every year to think of each other. Lyra loses the instinctive ability to read the alethiometer but decides to study it properly.