WICKED: Can someone tell me THE WHOLE STORY?

Question:how does it start?
how does it end?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: how does it start?
how does it end?

this is the summary excerpted from wikipedia:

Elphaba is born to Melena, a descendant of the Eminent Thropp, and Frexspar, an itinerant unionist minister. Frex is the seventh son of a seventh son, and the seventh pastor in his family. Melena married beneath her family's social standing and is generally unhappy in her marriage. She is known to have many extramarital affairs. Though it does not become clear until much later, Melena is at some point approached by a mysterious stranger, who doses her with a potion from a green bottle. He seduces her and nine months later she gives birth to a child, Elphaba, inside a device called The Clock of the Time Dragon, as her husband is attacked by a lynch mob. (The Clock of the Time Dragon is regarded as a religious relic by followers of the "pleasure faith," and recurs as a significant image throughout the novel.)

Melena's husband, Frex, believes the baby is a punishment from the Unnamed God for failing to protect his parishioners, and has Melena's Nanny brought from the Colwen Grounds to take care of the little baby. Her head is strapped to keep her from biting things (including herself), and she is terrified of water.

About a year and a half later, a traveling Quadling glassblower named Turtle Heart visits the home of Melena and Frex. Melena offers him food and drink, and Turtle Heart blows a beautiful glass reflecting ball for Elphaba. With Frex absent for extended periods, preaching to the Munchkinlanders, Turtle Heart and Melena begin a secret affair. When Frex returns to West Hardings, he befriends Turtle Heart (seemingly ignorant of the relationship between the Quadling and his wife), out of both unionist charity (Quadlings, after all, "ranked about as low on the social ladder as it was possible to get and still be human") and religious zeal (Quadlings have no concept of religion, so Frex sees Turtle Heart as a potential convert). It is also hinted at that Frex and Turtle Heart had a relationship, as he admits later in the novel to having been in love with him.

At the end of the first part, Melena is pregnant with Turtle Heart's child, Elphaba's younger sister Nessarose. Nessarose, or "Nessa" for short, is born as pink as Elphaba is green and, more importantly, without arms. Unable to balance properly, she requires constant supervision. Nessarose embraces Frex's zealotry and, thus, she is her father's favorite.

[edit] Gillikin
The second part opens on a train to Shiz, a city in southwestern Gillikin. Two of the train's passengers, Doctor Dillamond and Galinda, are bound for Shiz University. Upon arrival, Dillamond retreats to his professors' quarters and Galinda heads off to Crage Hall, the women's university.

Having lost her chaperone, Ama Clutch, during the train ride to Shiz (Ama Clutch stepped on a rusty nail and stays behind for medical treatment), Galinda has no one to represent her in the Ama's roommate negotiations. Refusing to bunk with the common girls in the group dormitory (the Pink Dormitory), Galinda reluctantly agrees to room with Elphaba. Galinda and Elphaba do not get along very well. Elphaba, being green, is not interested in socializing, and Galinda, descended from the noble Arduenna Clan of Gillikin (though only on her mother's side), is more interested in climbing the social ladder than becoming friends with her outcast roommate. Galinda and Elphaba attend Dillamond's biology lectures. Doctor Dillamond is a Goat, a sentient goat, and much of the novel is based on the Animal/animal controversy, which Dillamond, a biologist, is attempting to unravel, by proving that Animals have more in common with humans than animals. Dillamond informs the class that, under the despotic reign of the Wizard of Oz, Animals are being discriminated against and, in some cases, forced to return to the fields. Dillamond's fears that Animal discrimination are becoming widespread are seemingly confirmed by Madame Morrible (Horrible Morrible), the Headmistress of Crage Hall at Shiz University, who holds a poetry soiree that turns out to be nothing more than a forum for her propagandizing: Animals should be seen and not heard. Elphaba is drawn to the Animal rights movement early on, and she later becomes Dillamond's secretary and lab assistant.

Elphaba becomes friends with a Munchkin boy named Boq, who develops a crush on Galinda. As she is a tall Gillikinese, and he is a short Munchkinlander, she rebuffs him. He hopes his friendship with Elphaba will bring him closer to Galinda; however, he ends up becoming wrapped up in Elphaba and Dillamond's cause. However, their friendship is shaken when Doctor Dillamond is murdered, and Galinda's chaperone, Ama Clutch, allegedly witnesses Madame Morrible's wind-up servant, Grommetik, kill him. Ama Clutch is magicked into a false stupor to keep her quiet. Galinda is wracked with guilt over what has happened to Ama Clutch, but it is the murder of Doctor Dillamond that has the most profound impact on her. In his memory, Galinda adopts the more traditional pronunciation of her name, "Glinda," and throws herself into her studies, having settled on a course of study in Sorcery, at Madame Morrible's insistence. Boq's crush on Glinda eventually subsides, and they all become friends with a Vinkus Prince named Fiyero, who is new to Shiz, and Elphaba's sister, Nessarose, who is called up to Shiz, ostensibly to bring a new chaperone for Glinda and Elphaba, Nanny. Frex sends his favorite child a "back-to-school" gift, a pair of silver shoes covered with hand-blown glass beads. Meanwhile, Elphaba carries on Doctor Dillamond's research in secret.

Over time, Ama Clutch's condition deteriorates and, when it is clear that she is about to die, Glinda tries to magic Ama Clutch out of her stupor. Her lucidity briefly restored, Ama Clutch tells Glinda that she witnessed Grommetik kill Doctor Dillamond, which he could only have done on the order of Madame Morrible. After Ama Clutch's funeral, Elphaba, Glinda, and Nessarose are almost convinced by Madame Morrible to become silent pawns of the Wizard, so-called "ambassadors of peace": Elphaba will go east, to Munchkinland; Glinda will go further north in Gillikin; Nessarose will go south, to Quadling Country, with no one going west because few people lived there. All three girls refuse, and when they try to discuss with one another, they are unable because they are bound by a spell that prevents them from discussing Morrible's proposition. Unwilling to remain silent, Elphaba decides that something must be done.

She and Glinda travel to the Emerald City, where they meet the Wizard of Oz and plead the case of the Animals. He dismisses their concerns out of hand, and Glinda and Elphaba are commanded to return to Shiz. However, Elphaba stays behind and sends Glinda back to college, after saying that she can't see her again; she has decided to take matters into her own hands.

[edit] City of Emeralds
Almost five years have passed since Elphaba has seen Glinda, Boq, or any of her friends from college. She lives in the Emerald City now, and is secretly involved in the movement to help free the Animals and get rid of the Wizard of Oz. Fiyero, now a Prince and with children, comes to the Emerald City to settle business with the politicians there. He sees Elphaba praying to a likeness of St. Glinda.

Fiyero follows her to her home, and they reconnect. He discovers she has started to take up sorcery, and tells her about Nessarose and Glinda. Nessa has taken a class in sorcery and Glinda is a sorceress, and they miss Elphaba. She and Fiyero begin to have an illicit love affair, and he neglects his wife Sarima, and his children, Irji, Manek, and Nor. The two lovers are at peace, and despite their occasionally conflicting personalities, Elphaba is actually happy with her life for once.

Her life changes one night, when she can finally fulfill her task: kill Madame Morrible. Fiyero follows her, but she cannot complete her task due to a group of children interfering with Elphaba's line of fire. He returns to her apartment to wait for her, where the Gale Force, who are looking for Elphaba, attacks him. He is kidnapped and hauled away, supposedly murdered. Elphaba escapes from the City, and runs to a mauntery, where she meets an elderly woman named Yackle, formerly the dame of the Philosophy Club.

[edit] In the Vinkus
Having been unconscious for almost a year, and then a nun for six more years, Elphaba goes to the Vinkus, the land where Fiyero was prince, and meets his wife and children. Elphaba brings along a boy named Liir, whom she claims no relation to, and stays at the castle Kiamo Ko for a year and a half or so. She attempts to tell Sarima, Fiyero's wife, of their affair, but Sarima refuses, saying she does not want to talk about her late husband. Fiyero's family, Elphaba, and Liir unexpectedly become a family unit; but when Manek, one of Sarima's sons, convinces Liir to hide in a well and leaves him there, Liir nearly dies; Elphaba's anger at Manek makes an icicle fall on him and kill him. Liir claims that while in the well a Fish told him he was Fiyero's son.

Sarima becomes upset and grieves, and the family starts to fall apart. Elphaba gets a letter from her father Frex, asking her to come help him with Nessarose, who has taken Elphaba's position of Eminent Thropp of Munchkinland. When she arrives, he asks her to help him talk to Nessa, whom Elphaba discovers has become a witch, called The Wicked Witch of the East. She leaves after Nessa promises to give her the infamous ruby slippers when she dies (Glinda enchanted them to allow her to walk, the shoes turned from silver to red as a side effect) that Frex made her. When she returns to Kiamo Ko, Sarima, her children, and sisters ar

This is the link for the wikipedia description of the musical version of wicked, rather than the story book version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_%28m...

I would highly recommend you went to see the musical! It is worthwhile!