It expands upon the history of the Elves, which was only hinted at in the preceding story, and follows Wil Ohmsford, grandson of Shea (the hero of the first book) and inheritor of the Shannara Elfstones.

The first plotline follows the quest of protagonists Wil Ohmsford and Amberle Elessedil to create a new Ellcrys, a magical tree that serves to banish all Demons from the Four Lands.

The second plotline focuses on the efforts of the Elven army and their allies to slow a massive Demon invasion, made possible by the dying of the current Ellcrys, to give Wil and Amberle enough time to complete their quest.

The plot he originally chose featured the son of Menion Leah as the protagonist and a girl with a Siren-like song that could manipulate the properties of objects around her.

When Brooks finished three-quarters of the tale in fall 1977 after writing around his law practice hours, he found himself stuck and could not think of a suitable ending.

Once del Rey finished a full line-by-line examination of the plot, Brooks leafed through the comments and found them to be disturbingly accurate.

This time, he created an outline for the full story and mailed it to del Rey and his wife for comments prior to delving into the writing process once more.

He replied in February 1981 with 25 single-spaced pages-worth of errors or problems, including a roughly 200-page span where he felt that the action and dialogue was seen from the author's viewpoint—not a character's.

To address this, Brooks used Ander Elessedil, formerly a minor character with little impact on the plot, and turned him into the focus of a majority of the book.

After years of battle between the light and the dark, the Elves summoned their greatest magic and created the Forbidding, a spell that imprisoned the Demons beyond the confines of the world.

Even when mankind nearly destroyed the world in the Great Wars, the Elves lived on, spending their last remaining magic to save the Ellcrys.

The Dagda Mor then sends the Reaper to kill all the Chosen, and the Changeling to act as a spy for the demons within the Elven city.

The Druid Allanon appeared, telling Eventine that his coming must remain a secret, and promising to find out the location of Safehold.

He retreated to Storlock for a time, and then went to Havenstead with Wil Ohmsford—who is a Healer, a descendant of Jerle Shannara and bearer of the Elfstones—to find Amberle Elessedil, who is King Eventine's granddaughter and a Chosen, who abandoned her duty to the Ellcrys and fled the Elven capital, Arborlon.

The King of the Silver River took them in and sheltered them just before they would have been caught; after talking with him, the duo discover they have been transported miles away from where they started, and have no idea if Allanon survived or where he was.

They decided to continue on to Arborlon and hoped to meet him there, but on the way their horse was stolen by Rovers, a group of people who travel in caravans and recognize no laws but their own.

Wil insisted that they get the horse back, and ingratiated himself to the Rovers and their leader Cephelo by using his skills as healer to help some of the sick or mildly injured members of the family.

Amberle received a seed from the dying Ellcrys and prepared to go to Safehold with Wil, six Elven companions and the Captain of the Home Guard, Crispin.

The group made the decision to rest the night there, but the Reaper found them again and killed the final two Elven hunters.

The duo met the young Wing Rider Perk soon after, who agreed to take them into the Wilderun on his Roc, Genewen.

Having no weapons, the Demons used human-wave tactics in the ensuing battles and literally ran over the Elven army, even managing to injure King Eventine.

Shortly after their return to Arborlon, Dwarf and Troll contingents joined them, uniting banners from all four of the Four Lands for the first time in history.

Hebel recognized the name Safehold and knew where it was; under a lonely mountain in the hollows, the domain of the Witch Sisters.

Wil, Eretria, Hebel, and Drifter escaped with Amberle, the Elfstones, and Mallenroh's servant, Wisp; who brought them to the Bloodfire.

The Reaper attacked them and killed Wisp, but Wil destroyed it by realizing that it wasn't his human blood preventing the use of the Elfstones, but because he was afraid of them and had formed a mental block against using them.

At this point, Allanon engaged and defeated the Dagda Mor in a titanic battle while the forces of "good", now severely depleted, regrouped at their last line of defense: the Gardens of Life, where the Ellcrys resided.

The Demons tried to reach the Ellcrys to destroy her, but they were held back by those forces of "good" just long enough so that Wil and Amberle could fly in.