Eustace Scrubb, now a reformed character following the events of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,

encounters his classmate and new friend Jill Pole at their school, Experiment House, where they are
miserable. Jill has been tormented by bullies and is hiding from them. Eustace tells Jill about his
Narnian adventures, and how his experiences there led to the changes in his behaviour - which Jill
warns is likely to see him targeted by the bullies as well. Eustace suggests asking for Aslan's help,
and as the bullies converge on them, the two blunder through a gate that leads them to Aslan's
Country.
They encounter a cliff, where Jill shows off by approaching the edge, and Eustace, trying to pull her
back, falls over the edge. Aslan appears and saves Eustace by blowing him to Narnia. He charges
Jill with helping Eustace find King Caspian X's son, Prince Rilian of Narnia, who disappeared some
years earlier. He gives Jill four Signs to guide them on their quest and then blows Jill into Narnia,
where Eustace is already waiting by a great castle. They watch as an elderly and frail man takes
ship and sails from the harbour. To Eustace's dismay, they learn that the elderly man is actually King
Caspian; by failing to greet him they have missed the first Sign. Fifty years have passed since
Eustace was last in Narnia, even though less than a year has passed in his world. They also learnt
that Caspian has sailed off to visit again the lands they had sailed to when he and Eustace were
young, although many Narnians believe that he has set off to seek Aslan in order to ask who can be
the next King of Narnia when he dies. Caspian is obviously deteriorating with old age, and his people
fear that he will not live for much longer.
Trumpkin the Dwarf, now Lord Regent and very elderly and deaf, provides Jill and Eustace with
rooms in Cair Paravel, but on the advice of Glimfeather the Owl they make no mention of their quest.
Glimfeather summons them to a Parliament of his fellow talking owls, who explain that Prince Rilian
disappeared a decade earlier while searching for the green serpent that killed his mother.
Jill and Eustace are flown to the marshes on the northern edge of Narnia where they meet their
guide, Puddleglum, a gloomy but stalwart Marsh-wiggle. They journey toward the giant-lands north
of Narnia. Hungry and suffering from exposure, they meet the Lady of the Green Kirtle accompanied
by a silent knight in black armour. She encourages them to proceed northward to Harfang, the castle
of the "Gentle Giants", who she says would be glad to have them at their Autumn Feast. Jill and
Eustace, overcome at the thought of comfort and warmth, are eager to go; only Puddleglum argues
against the journey to Harfang. After a long journey in harsh weather, and braving a mysterious
chasm in a driving snowstorm, they are welcomed at Harfang.
From the castle the three see that in the snowstorm they had blundered through the ruins of a giant
city in the valley below, thereby missing Aslan's second Sign. They also see the words "Under Me"
engraved on the road, which is the third Sign. Discovering from a cookbook in the kitchen
that they are the main course for the Autumn Feast, they make a narrow escape from Harfang.
Following the Sign, they take shelter in a cave under the ruined city, where they fall down a long
dark slope into Underland.
They are found by an army of underground-dwelling earthmen, who take them aboard a boat across
the subterranean Sunless Sea to the city ruled by the Lady of the Green Kirtle. She herself is away,
but her protégé, a young man, greets the travellers pleasantly. He explains that he suffers from
nightly psychotic episodes, and during these episodes he must, by the Lady's orders, be bound to a
silver chair; for if he is released, he will turn into a deadly green serpent and kill everyone in sight.
The three travellers determine to witness the youth in his torment, as they sense it could be the key
to their quest.
When the young man is tied to his chair, his "ravings" seem instead to indicate desperation to
escape an enchanted captivity. After several threats, the youth finally begs the three to release him
in the name of Aslan. Recognizing this as the fourth Sign, they hesitantly do so, believing that he
could indeed be Prince Rilian. The young man immediately destroys the silver chair. Free from
enchantment, he thanks them and declares that he is the vanished Prince Rilian, kept underground
by the Lady of the Green Kirtle as part of her plot to conquer Narnia.
The Green Lady returns and tries to bewitch them all into forgetting who they are, but the barefoot
Puddleglum stamps out the enchantress's magical fire and breaks her spell. The enraged Lady
transforms herself into a green serpent, and Rilian kills her with the help of Eustace and
Puddleglum.[5] Realising that the Green Lady was herself the serpent who killed his mother, Rilian
leads the travellers to escape from Underland. The gnomes, who had also been magically enslaved
by the Lady, are now freed by her death and joyfully return to their home even deeper in the earth, a
land called Bism. One of them shows Rilian's party a route to the surface, and Rilian returns to Cair
Paravel as King Caspian is returning home. Caspian is reunited with his long-lost son but dies
moments later. Rilian is then declared King of Narnia.
Aslan appears and congratulates Eustace and Jill on achieving their goal, then returns them to the
stream in his country where Jill first met him. The body of King Caspian appears in the stream, and
Aslan instructs Eustace to drive a thorn into the lion's paw. Eustace obeys, and Aslan's blood flows
over the dead King, who is revived and returned to youth. Aslan promises Eustace and Jill that, while
they have to return to their own world for a while, they will one day return to Aslan's Country to stay.
He then allows Caspian to accompany Eustace and Jill back to their own world for a brief time,
where they drive off the bullies before Caspian returns to Aslan's Country. Experiment House
becomes a well-managed school, and Eustace and Jill remain good friends.