Ocarina of Time Story Explained: Plot, Ending and Timeline

Ocarina of Time is the game Nintendo's official Zelda timeline branches out of, so most of the games on Nintendo's timeline chart follow from one of its possible endings. It is also a 1998 story told through text boxes, Navi interruptions and a seven-year skip, so it is easy to come out of it fuzzy on who did what. Here is the actual plot, in order, in plain language, with the parts that matter for the rest of the series pulled out at the end.

Every plot point below comes from Zelda Wiki's story pages for the game and its characters, read on November 10, 2026, and the timeline section comes from Nintendo's own official timeline page plus Zelda Wiki's summary of the two Nintendo books that first laid it out. Where a line is quoted, it is a line those sources quote from the game. This covers the 1998 Nintendo 64 game; the Switch 2 remake keeps the same plot, and its handful of story changes get their own short section near the end.

The premise, without spoilers

Link is a boy living among the Kokiri, a race of forest children who each have a guardian fairy. Link is the only one without a fairy, until the forest's guardian, the Great Deku Tree, sends one named Navi to fetch him. The Deku Tree is dying from a curse laid by a sorcerer from the desert, and that sorcerer wants the Triforce: a golden relic left behind by the three goddesses who created the world, which grants the wish of whoever touches it.

Link sets out to stop him with the help of Princess Zelda of Hyrule. That is all you need to start the game. Everything below gives the story away, twist included.

The story, start to finish

Spoiler warning: from here to the end of the post, everything is spoiled, including the ending and the identity of Sheik.

A boy without a fairy

Link has been having nightmares about Zelda fleeing from an evil man dressed in black. The Great Deku Tree summons him through Navi and asks him to go inside the tree's hollow and break the curse on him. Link clears the dungeon and kills the monster inside (our Deku Tree walkthrough covers it room by room), but the tree tells him he was doomed before Link started.

Before he dies, the Deku Tree names the man who cursed him: a "desert man in black armor" who wanted the stone the tree was guarding. He gives Link that stone, the Kokiri's Emerald, and sends him to Hyrule Castle to meet the "Princess of Destiny". On his way out of the forest, Link's friend Saria gives him the Fairy Ocarina as a keepsake. Outside the forest, a talking owl called Kaepora Gaebora points him toward the castle.

Zelda, Ganondorf and the three Spiritual Stones

Link sneaks past the castle guards into a courtyard where Princess Zelda is spying through a window (the route is in our Hyrule Castle guide). She tells Link she dreamed of a light coming out of the forest, carrying a green stone and followed by a fairy, and she thinks he is that light.

Through the window she shows him the man from both their dreams: Ganondorf, leader of the Gerudo, a desert people to the west. He has sworn allegiance to Zelda's father, the King of Hyrule, but Zelda is sure he does not mean it and that he is after the Triforce, which rests in the Sacred Realm, a sealed-off world joined to Hyrule. The way in needs three Spiritual Stones and the royal family's Ocarina of Time. Zelda's plan is simple: Link collects the other two stones, she guards the ocarina, and they reach the Triforce first. Her bodyguard Impa teaches Link a royal melody, Zelda's Lullaby, before leading him out (it opens a lot of doors; see our songs guide).

Ganondorf has been squeezing the other two stones out of their keepers too:

• The Goron's Ruby. The Gorons, a race of rock-eating mountain people, have had their food supply cut off: Ganondorf blocked Dodongo's Cavern and would only reopen it in exchange for the stone. Their chief, Darunia, refuses to hand it over. Link wins him round by playing Saria's Song, clears the cavern (walkthrough), and becomes his sworn brother.
• Zora's Sapphire. The Zoras, a fish people, have lost their princess, Ruto, inside Lord Jabu-Jabu, the giant fish they worship. Ganondorf infected Jabu-Jabu with a parasite. Link rescues Ruto from inside the fish (walkthrough), and she hands over the stone, which she calls the Zora Engagement Ring. Zelda Wiki notes that Ruto now considers the two of them engaged, and that Link has no idea.

The Door of Time and the seven-year jump

Link heads back to the castle with all three stones and arrives as it falls. Ganondorf has attacked, and Zelda and Impa ride past him on a white horse. As they cross the drawbridge, Zelda throws the Ocarina of Time into the moat for Link. Ganondorf charges after them, stops to demand which way they went, and knocks Link down with magic when the boy draws his sword.

When Link pulls the ocarina out of the water, Zelda's voice teaches him the Song of Time and tells him to play it at the altar in the Temple of Time. The three stones and the song open the Door of Time, and behind it sits the Master Sword, a holy blade evil cannot touch. Link pulls it out of its pedestal, which opens the way to the Sacred Realm.

And then the trap springs. Ganondorf has followed him in. In the lines Zelda Wiki quotes, he thanks Link for opening the door: "You have led me to the gates of the Sacred Realm... Yes, I owe it all to you, kid!" He walks through while Link can only watch.

Rauru, Sheik and the legend of the temples

Link wakes up seven years later, now an adult, in a place called the Chamber of Sages. An old man introduces himself as Rauru, one of the ancient Sages who built the Temple of Time to guard the Sacred Realm. He explains what happened. Only someone worthy of the title "Hero of Time" can pull the Master Sword from its pedestal, and Link was too young, so his spirit was sealed away for seven years until he was old enough. Meanwhile Ganondorf took the Triforce, became the King of Evil, and turned Hyrule into a land of monsters in seven years. Rauru gives Link the Light Medallion, his power as the Sage of Light, and sends him to find the others.

Back in the Temple of Time, a masked stranger named Sheik is waiting, a survivor of the Sheikah, the shadowy tribe that serves the royal family. Sheik tells Link a Sheikah legend: when evil rules, Sages will be called awake in five temples, "in a deep forest", "on a high mountain", "under a vast lake", "within the house of the dead" and "inside a goddess of the sand", and together with the Hero of Time they will seal the evil away. Ganondorf's evil has infested those temples so the Sages cannot answer. Link's job for the rest of the game is to clear them.

From here on, Sheik turns up at each region and teaches Link a warp song that takes him to the next temple. Sheik also shows Link that putting the Master Sword back in its pedestal sends him back to being a child, and that pulling it out again returns him to adulthood, which is why the second half of the game makes you use both ages.

Forest Temple: Saria

While Link slept, the Kokiri boy Mido told everyone Link was to blame for the Great Deku Tree's death. Saria was the only Kokiri who stood up for him. When evil started blowing out of the Forest Temple, Saria went to deal with it and called for help. Link clears the temple and beats the boss, Phantom Ganon (full route in our Forest Temple guide), and Saria awakens as the Sage of Forest. She gives him the Forest Medallion. Later in the game, the Deku Tree's sprout tells Link the secret of his past: his mother was a Hylian woman who fled into the forest during a war, left her baby with the Deku Tree and died. Link was never a Kokiri at all.

Fire Temple: Darunia

Ganondorf has locked the Gorons inside the Fire Temple to be fed to a dragon, Volvagia. Darunia went in after the dragon himself. Sheik teaches Link the Bolero of Fire in the volcano's crater; Link frees the trapped Gorons and kills Volvagia (Fire Temple guide). Darunia, who is still calling Link his brother after seven years, awakens as the Sage of Fire and gives him the Fire Medallion.

Water Temple: Ruto

Ganondorf has frozen Zora's Domain solid, and Lake Hylia below it has nearly drained. Sheik pulled Ruto out of the ice, and she has gone to the Water Temple to save her people. Link finds the Iron Boots in the Ice Cavern, where Sheik teaches him the Serenade of Water (Ice Cavern walkthrough), then meets Ruto inside the temple. He defeats Morpha, the water monster behind it all (Water Temple guide), and Ruto awakens as the Sage of Water. She tells Link she still loves him but that their engagement has to wait now that she is a Sage, and gives him the Water Medallion.

Shadow Temple: Impa

Kakariko Village, which Impa leads, comes under attack from something invisible. It is an evil spirit Impa sealed away in the village well years ago, and it has broken free. Sheik and Link are both knocked down by it. Sheik teaches the Nocturne of Shadow and asks Link to help Impa, who has gone after it into the Shadow Temple under the graveyard. To see through that temple's tricks, Link needs the Lens of Truth, which he finds as a child at the Bottom of the Well. He beats the spirit, Bongo Bongo (Shadow Temple guide), and Impa awakens as the Sage of Shadow. She tells Link her side of the night she fled the castle with Zelda and gives him the Shadow Medallion.

Spirit Temple: Nabooru

Sheik teaches the Requiem of Spirit at the Desert Colossus, a giant goddess statue carved into the desert rock, and tells Link to go in as a child. Young Link meets Nabooru, a Gerudo thief who has already turned against Ganondorf. She wants to sneak into the temple, his followers' base, but needs the Silver Gauntlets, which are behind a gap only a child can crawl through. Link fetches them, and Ganondorf's surrogate mothers, the witches Koume and Kotake, snatch Nabooru on the spot.

Seven years later, adult Link fights an armored Iron Knuckle deep in the temple. When its armor falls away, it is Nabooru, brainwashed by the witches. They grab her again, Link beats them in their combined form, Twinrova (Spirit Temple guide), and Nabooru awakens as the Sage of Spirit. She gives him the Spirit Medallion.

Sheik's reveal

With six Sages awake, Rauru sends Link back to the Temple of Time, and Sheik explains the last piece. The Triforce tests the heart of whoever touches it. If that heart balances Power, Wisdom and Courage, they get the whole thing. If not, it splits into three, and the person keeps only the part they believe in most. When Ganondorf touched it, it split: he got the Triforce of Power, and the other two pieces went to two people chosen by destiny. Link holds the Triforce of Courage.

The holder of the Triforce of Wisdom is the seventh Sage, the leader of them all, and Sheik drops the disguise: Sheik is Princess Zelda. She has hidden as a Sheikah for seven years waiting for Link to come back. Her plan is for the six Sages to lure Ganondorf back into the Sacred Realm while she seals the door behind him. She gives Link the Light Arrows, the weapon for the job.

Revealing herself is the mistake. Ganondorf has been waiting for exactly this. He traps Zelda in a crystal and takes her to his castle, built where Hyrule Castle used to stand, and tells Link to come and get her.

Ganon's Castle and the final battle

The six Sages build a bridge across the lava to Ganondorf's castle. Inside, six barriers protect his tower, and Link has to break all of them (Ganon's Castle guide). At the top, Ganondorf is playing an organ, with Zelda floating in her crystal above him.

Link beats Ganondorf with the Light Arrows and the Master Sword. With his last breath, Ganondorf brings the tower down on them, and Link and the freed Zelda escape through the collapsing castle. Ganondorf then rises out of the rubble and uses the Triforce of Power to turn into Ganon, a giant beast, who traps Link inside a ring of fire for the real final fight. Link wins with the Master Sword, backed by the power of the Sages (the fight itself is in our boss guide).

The Sages then seal Ganondorf away in the void of what is now the Evil Realm, the Sacred Realm turned dark by his heart. Being sealed is not the same as being beaten, and he says so: someday, when the seal breaks, he will wipe out Link's and Zelda's descendants, as long as he still holds the Triforce of Power. Zelda thanks Link and promises peace will reign again "for a time". That is Ganondorf keeping his piece of the Triforce, and it is the hook the rest of the series hangs on.

The ending: Zelda sends Link home

Zelda tells Link the Master Sword must be laid to rest and the Door of Time closed, which will shut the road between the two times. She asks for the ocarina and, as a Sage, uses it to send Link back to his own childhood to regain the years he lost.

Back in the Temple of Time as a boy, Link watches Navi fly away through the temple window, with no reason given. Then he goes back to the castle courtyard where he first met Zelda. He knows what is coming now, and the game ends with him back where the story started, this time with a warning.

Who's who

Where Ocarina of Time sits in the Zelda timeline

Short version: Ocarina of Time is where the official Zelda timeline splits into three.

Nintendo first published a series-wide timeline in Hyrule Historia, a 25th-anniversary book released in Japan on December 21, 2011 (Dark Horse published the English edition on January 29, 2013). An updated version followed in The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia, released in Japan on March 1, 2017 and in English on June 19, 2018. Zelda Wiki cites both books for the three branches, and Nintendo's own timeline page, built for the series' 40th anniversary, lays out the same structure with the newer games added. The game lists below come from that Nintendo page, read on November 10, 2026, because the 2011 book predates several of them.

Before the split, Nintendo puts Ocarina of Time after Skyward Sword, The Minish Cap and Four Swords, in a period it calls "the era of the Hero of Time". Then Nintendo's page literally says "Time splits" and makes you choose between two outcomes of the final battle: "The hero is triumphant" or "The hero is defeated". The triumphant path then splits again, between the Adult era and the Child era.

The hero is triumphant: the Child and Adult timelines

The two winning branches come straight out of the ending above. Zelda sends Link back, so there are now two Hyrules: the one Link returns to as a child, and the one he leaves behind as an adult.

• Child Timeline. Link warns the royal family about Ganondorf, which stops his rise before it starts. Zelda Wiki adds that Hyrule Historia never explains how they convinced the king this time. Link then leaves Hyrule on his horse Epona to look for Navi, which is how Majora's Mask begins. Years later, Ganondorf is banished into the Twilight Realm, which sets up Twilight Princess.
• Adult Timeline. In the future Link leaves, Ganondorf stays sealed with the Triforce of Power, Zelda keeps the Triforce of Wisdom, and with no hero left, the Triforce of Courage breaks into eight shards. Per Zelda Wiki's reading of Hyrule Historia, Ganondorf eventually escapes, the gods flood Hyrule to stop him, and the drowned kingdom becomes the ocean of The Wind Waker.

One oddity Zelda Wiki points out: the Master Sword ends up back in its pedestal in both branches. In the Child Timeline Link returns it; in the Adult Timeline Zelda does.

The hero is defeated

The third branch is the one the game never shows you, because it starts from a game over. Zelda Wiki summarizes Hyrule Historia's account: Link falls in the final battle, Ganon takes the Triforce of Courage and the Triforce of Wisdom and reassembles the whole Triforce, and as a last resort the Sages, led by Zelda, seal Ganon and the Triforce inside the Sacred Realm, which becomes the Dark World. That is the setup of A Link to the Past. Many years later the Imprisoning War breaks out over the Sacred Realm, which Nintendo's page also places before A Link to the Past.

This branch ends with the original The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II. The most recent game on it is Echoes of Wisdom (released September 26, 2024), which Zelda Wiki places after Tri Force Heroes and before the decline of the kingdom that leads to the original game.

Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom

Nintendo's timeline page shows Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom in their own section, "The Great Calamity and the Upheaval", after the three branches, without tying it to any one of them. Zelda Wiki describes them as set in a distant future whose connection to the earlier games is deliberately vague, and quotes a 2018 Famitsu interview in which Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, asked which branch that game sits at the end of, answered that it is "up to the player's imagination".

Nintendo also reserves the right to move things. Zelda Wiki quotes Aonuma saying the timeline "has been tweaked many times", and notes the in-universe explanation: the games' stories are legends passed down through generations, so when and how things happened gets blurry. Treat the branch lists as Nintendo's current word, not a law of physics.

What the Switch 2 remake changed about the story

The plot above is unchanged in the Switch 2 remake, but it is told differently: fully voiced cutscenes, a script Zelda Wiki says was entirely rewritten, and several expanded scenes, including a new opening narration, the Deku Tree's death and Ganondorf walking past a frozen Link to claim the Triforce. Our remake vs original guide lists those scenes and the character changes. One more Zelda Wiki records that bears on the ending: in the final battle with Ganon, the walls of fire now also cut Zelda off from the Master Sword, and when they drop she throws the sword to Link, who fights the rest of the battle with it glowing.

Quick Action Checklist

• Never played it? Read only the spoiler-free premise above, then go in blind. The seven-year jump and the Sheik reveal are worth not knowing.
• Playing now and stuck? Our dungeon order guide follows the same story beats with the items and songs that unlock each one.
• Coming in from Majora's Mask or Twilight Princess? You are on the Child Timeline: the branch where Link goes home and warns Zelda.
• Coming in from The Wind Waker? You are on the Adult Timeline: the future Link leaves behind.
• Coming in from A Link to the Past or the original Zelda? You are on the branch where Link loses the final battle.
• Playing the Switch 2 remake? Same story, new voiced scenes; the remake overview covers what else changed.