Plot summary

As Smaug breathes fire and destruction onto Laketown, another sort of dragon-danger threatens Thorin Oakenshield - the gold madness that seized his Grandsire Thror, King Under the Mountain of old. The people of Laketown flee to the ruins of Dale, in the shadow of the Lonely Mountain, only to be greeted by an army of Elves led by Thranduil, marching there too. Asking Thorin for their own fair share of the gold, Men and Elves are answered by Dwarvish defiance. Thorin seems overmatched until an army led by Dwarf-Lord Dain, Thorin's kinsman, approaches from the Iron Hills to the northeast. Meantime, Gandalf, imprisoned in the ruins of Dol Guldûr, seems about to be finished off by the Nine Ring Wraiths, led by the deadliest of their lot, Witch King of the ancient, evil realm of Angmar. And what on Middle Earth will happen when an enormous army of Orcs and Wargs suddenly pours out of tunnels under the earth, surrounding and threatening doom to all the other armies gathered at the Lonely Mountain? Orcs and their Fell Beasts, Elves, Dwarves, Men - Five Armies join battle, and the result will determine the fate of the North in the gathering War of the Ring.