The Drawing of the Three (1987) is the second book in Stephen King’s dimension-hopping dark fantasy-Western series The Dark Tower. Roland, the last gunslinger, awakens on a beach in his world and is immediately attacked by monstrous “lobstrosities.” The encounter leaves him infected and without two fingers on his shooting right hand. Roland must now urgently find a way to heal himself and seek out the three, the trio of people crucial to his quest for the Dark Tower, the axis that holds together the many worlds. Roland encounters three doors on the beach, each opening into New York City in the readers’ world at different times. Through these doors, Roland meets the three who are indispensable to his quest: Eddie Dean, a man from 1987; Odetta Holmes, a civil rights activist from 1964; and Jack Mort, a serial killer from 1977. The plot follows the roles that the three play in Roland’s journey and his relationships with each, leading to unexpected revelations, intersecting timelines, and new mysteries.

The Dark Tower is a series of eight novels, one novella, and a children’s book that King wrote between 1982 and 2012. Inspired by Western novels and movies, the genre-bending series includes elements of science fiction, high fantasy, and horror. It has been classified as a multiversal, dimension-traveling series. According to King, the idea of constructing a quest with the Dark Tower as its end goal was inspired by Robert Browning’s poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.” As in Browning’s poem, the protagonist of King’s series is called Roland. King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower series is linked to many of his other novels. The series has been praised for its rich and mysterious symbolism, action-packed scenes, and adventure-filled plot. The Dark Tower, a movie based on the series, was released in 2017.

Stephen King has authored more than 50 books of horror, suspense, and fantasy fiction, as well as nonfiction works like On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Many of his books have been made into movies, including The Shining (1980), considered a classic of American moviemaking. King won the 2003 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He also released some earlier works under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. King lives in Maine and Florida with his wife, author Tabitha King. The couple has three children.

This guide follows the 2017 Hodder Books UK paperback edition of The Drawing of the Three.

Content Warning: The book contains sensationalized portrayals of and outdated/problematic terms for substance abuse, dissociative identity disorder (DID), disabilities, and other health conditions. It also contains racist language, outdated portrayals of Black characters, and insensitive conversations around race. For the purpose of analysis, the guide includes quotes from the text that contain abusive terms and sexual references.

Plot Summary

The action resumes minutes after the final events of The Gunslinger, the first book of The Dark Tower series. Roland, the gunslinger who is on a quest for the mysterious Dark Tower, wakes up from a 10-year-long sleep on a vast gray beach. He can’t stay on the beach’s slope for long because a four-foot-long, lobster-like creature is approaching him. In his scramble to get up, Roland is attacked by the creature, who bites off the first two fingers of his right hand. Roland saves himself, but his wounds become badly infected. As he moves northward for help, he eventually comes across a door standing in the sand. The door is marked “The Prisoner,” a name relevant to Roland because it was one of the tarot cards of destiny drawn for him in the last book. The three cards drawn for him indicated three companions in his quest for the Dark Tower.

Roland opens the door and enters the mind of Eddie Dean, a 20-year-old man flying from the Bahamas to New York. While he’s in Eddie’s mind, Roland can still see the open doorway and the beach world. Eddie is trying to smuggle in cocaine through Customs. Knowing that Eddie is important for his mission, Roland makes his presence known to Eddie. The two men exit through the doorway, hide the cocaine on the beach, and then return to Eddie’s world. Eddie plans to retrieve the cocaine and hand it over to Balazar, the criminal who is holding his brother, Henry, hostage. The plan backfires when Balazar’s men kill Henry, and Roland pulls Eddie into his world, shutting Eddie’s portal forever. When the antibiotics that Eddie grabbed for Roland run out, he lapses into a debilitating fever, while Eddie experiences symptoms of drug withdrawal. The two men trawl the beach for clues and come to the second door.

Marked “The Lady of the Shadows,” the name of the second tarot card that indicated Roland’s destiny, the door leads to Odetta Holmes, a civil rights activist in 1964 New York. Odetta has been attacked by a mysterious man since she was a child. In the last attack, she lost both her legs. Eddie wants to accompany Roland to that world, but Roland refuses, fearing that Eddie may use the opportunity to begin using drugs again. Angry, Eddie plans to kill Roland’s unconscious body but can’t bring himself to commit murder. Roland discovers that Odetta has symptoms of dissociative identity disorder. One of her identities is Detta Walker, a wild, amoral woman who is the opposite of calm and cultured Odetta. As guards chase Detta after she’s caught shoplifting, Roland brings her through the portal to the beach.

On the beach, Detta and Odetta alternatively dominate. Eddie falls In love with Odetta. Roland, who was unable to procure antibiotics in Odetta’s world, grows increasingly weak. Eddie and Odetta ask him to rest while they look for the third door. They find it, and Eddie leaves Odetta behind to guard it while he goes to get Roland. When Eddie and Roland get to the door, Odetta has disappeared. Roland fears a trap, but Eddie insists on staying behind because he thinks Odetta may have been taken by a wild animal. The third door, which is marked “The Pusher,” leads into an unexpected place: the mind of Jack Mort, the man who repeatedly attacked Odetta. Not only has Mort traumatized Odetta, but he also plans to kill Jake Chambers, Roland’s companion in the first novel of the series.

Roland is shocked to enter Mort’s mind as he’s about to push 12-year-old Jake into traffic. Roland distracts Mort, saving Jake. Roland’s purpose becomes clear: Mort isn’t a part of Roland’s quest but is the man he must eliminate to restore justice. The third companion of Roland’s quest is Roland himself. As Roland commandeers Mort’s mind to carry out his next plan, he sees the beach world from the doorway. Detta has emerged, leaving Eddie tied up near the water so that the lobster-like creatures can attack him at sunset. This means that Roland has only until sunset to complete his mission. Through Mort, Roland procures antibiotics as well as guns and ammunition for himself, Eddie, and Odetta. He takes Mort to the same subway station where he pushed Odetta onto the tracks and kills him. At the moment of Mort’s death, Roland telepathically bids Detta to look through the doorway. She sees the events as well as Odetta. Detta and Odetta merge and become Susannah, a woman who has the qualities of both.

Susannah grabs the guns that Roland has brought and opens fire on the lobster-like creatures just as they begin swarming the beach. Susannah, Roland, and Eddie are now the three gunslingers. At the end of their quest in this book, the trio withdraw to the mountains to rest. Roland recovers and tells Eddie that though he can sacrifice Eddie and Odetta for the tower, he loves both anyway. The novel ends on this cryptic note, setting the stage for events in The Waste Lands (1991), the third book in the series.