Book Synopsis:
Twelve-year-old Will Parry lives in Oxford, where he cares for his mother who has mental health problems. After accidentally killing an intruder, Will escapes via a portal into another world and finds himself in the city of Cittàgazze where he meets Lyra and her dæmon Pantalaimon, who have arrived from her world via the opening in the sky created by her father, Lord Asriel (in Northern Lights).Mrs Coulter, Lyra's mother, tortures a witch for a prophecy said to concern her daughter. Before the victim can reveal the details, she is killed by the witch Serafina Pekkala. Realising Lyra's importance, Serafina Pekkala sets off in search of her. Meanwhile the aeronaut Lee Scoresby searches for Stanislaus Grumman, previously believed dead, who is rumoured to have knowledge of a powerful object that could protect Lyra. Will returns to his world to seek information about his father, who went missing years earlier on an expedition. Lyra, who has come with him, wants to learn about Dust—mysterious particles connected to consciousness. On the advice of her alethiometer Lyra visits the physicist Dr Mary Malone, who has a computer that can communicate with dark matter. Lyra realises that dark matter seems to correspond with what she knows as Dust.
After accepting a lift from an elderly man introducing himself as Sir Charles Latrom, Lyra realises he has stolen her alethiometer. Sir Charles promises to return the instrument in return for a powerful knife that he covets, now in Cittàgazze. Will defeats a youth who has taken the knife from its holder, Giacomo Paradisi, but loses two fingers in the fight. Paradisi explains that this is a sign that Will is the knife's new bearer, and he explains its power: the ability to cut through any material, even the fabric between worlds. Will and Lyra learn that Cittàgazze is haunted by soul-eating spectres, which prey on adolescents and adults but ignore children.
Will uses the knife to cut a window into Sir Charles's home where he overhears a conversation with Mrs Coulter. Lyra realises that Sir Charles is Lord Boreal, originally from her own world, and Will hears news of his father, who had disappeared after discovering a window between the worlds. Will and Lyra escape back to Cittàgazze with the alethiometer and are rescued from marauding children by Serafina Pekkala. She attempts unsuccessfully to heal Will's injured hand.
Sir Charles visits Dr Malone and offers to fund her research if she will follow his directions. She refuses. At Lyra's suggestion, she uses her computer to communicate with the consciousness of dark matter. It instructs her to destroy the computer and to travel through the same window between worlds used by Will and Lyra, explaining that her role is to "play the serpent".
Lee Scoresby finds Grumman living as a shaman known to the people of that world as Jopari (a modified form of his English name John Parry): Will's father. Grumman has summoned Scoresby to take him to the bearer of the knife and to assist Lord Asriel, who is assembling an army to rebel against an ancient angel called the Authority. They set off in Scoresby's hot air balloon but are forced to land by soldiers of the Church. The soldiers attack, and Scoresby calls Serafina for help. She leaves Lyra to follow his call, but arrives too late. Scoresby has died holding off the soldiers so that Grumman can complete his task.
Mrs Coulter tricks Sir Charles into revealing the secret of the knife, and poisons him. She uses the spectres, which she has learned to control, to torture a witch into revealing the prophecy: that Lyra is the second Eve. Mrs Coulter plans to destroy her daughter rather than risk a second Fall.
Leaving Lyra asleep at their overnight camp, Will walks on alone and finds his father, who staunches his bleeding and tells him to join Lord Asriel's forces. Grumman is killed by a vengeful witch whose love he had once spurned. Will returns to find a pair of angels waiting to guide him to Asriel. He goes to awaken Lyra, but finds that she is missing and that her guardian witches' souls have been drained by spectres.
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