The Return of the King is the third and final volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, following The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers.
Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers.
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Aragon by his courage and leadership proves himself a worthy ruler of men. The brave and loyal Sam Gamgee enables the long-suffering Frodo Baggins to reach the Crack of Doom, where the One Ring is destroyed, freeing Middle-Earth from Sauron's power forever. The Hobbits return home, only to find the Shire under the control of Saruman, diminished in power but not malevolence. Merry and Pippin take the lead in setting things right again. Frodo departs for the Undying Lands with Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf and the elves.
Tolkien conceived of the The Lord of the Rings as a single volume comprising six sections he called "books" and extensive appendices. The original publisher made the decision to split the work into three parts, publishing the fifth and sixth books and the appendices under the title The Return of the King, in reference to Aragorn's assumption of the throne. Tolkien indicated he would have preferred "The War of the Ring" as a title, as it gave away less of the story.
The structure of The Return of the King mirrors somewhat that of The Two Towers in that the first section recounts the various adventures of several characters including a massive battle, and the second section resumes the quest of the Ringbearers.
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