The Voyage of the Dawn Treader recap

Lucy and Edmund Pevensie, stuck for the summer with their disagreeable cousin Eustace, are pulled through a picture of a ship into the eastern sea of Narnia and taken aboard the Dawn Treader. King Caspian is sailing to find seven lords his uncle exiled, and the mouse Reepicheep intends to go on to the world's end. They break the slave trade in the Lone Islands, and on a wild island Eustace, sneaking away from work and sleeping on a dragon's hoard with greedy thoughts, wakes as a dragon himself; Aslan restores him, and the experience begins to remake him. The voyage takes them past a pool that turns whatever touches it to gold, an island of invisible bumbling servants whose spell Lucy lifts, and a darkness where nightmares come true, from which they rescue one of the lost lords. At Ramandu's island they find the last three lords asleep under an enchantment that can only be broken by sailing to the world's end and leaving one of the company behind. Reepicheep goes over the wave into Aslan's country; Caspian is sent back to rule and to marry Ramandu's daughter; and the children are returned to England, where Lucy and Edmund learn they are too old to come to Narnia again.

The four Pevensie children came into Narnia twice: once through a wardrobe, where they helped the Lion Aslan end the White Witch's endless winter and reigned for years at Cair Paravel before falling back into England as children, and once again a year later, when Queen Susan's magic horn pulled them out of a railway station into a Narnia where centuries had passed. On that second visit they helped Prince Caspian, heir of the Telmarine conquerors, overthrow his usurping uncle Miraz and restore the Talking Beasts and other old creatures of Narnia to their own country. Among Caspian's supporters were the mouse Reepicheep and the dwarf Trumpkin. Aslan told Peter and Susan afterwards that they were now too old to return to Narnia; only Edmund and Lucy, the two younger children, may still be called back. Narnian time runs at its own rate, so a year in England may be any length of time there.

Lucy and Edmund are spending the summer with their aunt and uncle and their insufferable cousin Eustace Scrubb while their parents are abroad. A picture of a Narnian ship hangs in the spare bedroom; while the three of them are quarrelling in front of it the water begins to move, and all three are pulled through into the sea and hauled aboard the Dawn Treader. King Caspian, now a young man three years into a well-run reign, is sailing east to find the seven lords his uncle Miraz banished on a voyage beyond the Lone Islands, and the mouse Reepicheep is aboard with the private intention of reaching the world's end. Eustace, who has never been on a ship or believed in any of this, is seasick, rude and thoroughly out of his depth. At the Lone Islands the party is seized by slavers; Caspian is bought by Lord Bern, one of the seven, who has settled there quietly. With Bern's help Caspian reveals himself, takes the islands back, deposes the evasive Governor Gumpas, and abolishes the slave trade.

A long storm batters the ship for days and leaves it needing repair, and they put in at a mountainous island to refit. Eustace, dodging the work, wanders inland, gets lost in fog and finds a dying dragon and its cave of treasure. He sleeps on the hoard with greedy, grasping thoughts, and wakes to find that he has become a dragon himself, with a stolen armband cutting into his foreleg. Unable to speak or explain, he makes himself known to the others and turns out to be useful, carrying timber and hunting for the crew, but the horror of what he is has changed him: he learns what it is like to want to be liked and to be no use to anybody. Aslan comes to him at night and takes the dragon skin off him, painfully and completely, and he is a boy again, and a noticeably different one. They find an arm-ring on the island bearing the arms of Lord Octesian, and can only guess what became of him.

Past a burnt and empty island the ship is attacked by a sea serpent and escapes by shoving itself free rather than fighting. On the next island they find a mountain pool that turns whatever falls into it to gold, and beside it the armour of a lord who dived in. Greed takes hold at once and Caspian and Edmund quarrel over who owns the island; the sight of Aslan passing silently across the hillside breaks the mood, and they leave without touching the water or speaking of it again. Further east they land on a flat, cultivated island where invisible creatures ambush them and demand that the girl of the party go upstairs in the magician's house and read a spell to make them visible, having been made invisible by a spell of their own asking. Lucy goes. In the magician's book she is tempted by a spell that would make her beautiful beyond her sister, and by another that lets her overhear a schoolfriend saying unkind things she cannot now forget. She reads the spell she came for, and the islanders become visible, and Aslan is made visible with them.

The magician, Coriakin, proves to be mild and hospitable, and explains that his servants, one-legged creatures who bounce about on a single enormous foot, were made invisible only because they objected to being made less ridiculous. They are pleased with themselves either way. He feeds the ship's company, shows Drinian the seas ahead in a magic pool, and sends them on their way. Eastward the ship reaches a patch of darkness on the water and sails into it against the crew's judgement. It is an island where dreams, not daydreams but the dreams people wake from in terror, come true. A half-mad man swims out to them: Lord Rhoop, one of the seven, who has been there for years and begs them to sail away and never to ask him what he has seen. Lucy calls quietly to Aslan for help; an albatross appears, circles the ship and leads it out into daylight, and the darkness behind them dissolves.

They come to a green island with a long stone table set with a feast that renews itself daily, and three men asleep at the far end with hair grown down to the floor: the last three of the seven lords, who quarrelled and fell into an enchanted sleep when one of them seized a stone knife from the table. A young woman comes out at nightfall with a candle and explains what happened, and at dawn her father, Ramandu, a retired star, rises out of the east. Rhoop is given the sleep he asks for and joins the sleepers. The enchantment can be lifted only in one way: the ship must sail to the eastern edge of the world and leave at least one of its company behind for good. The crew, tired and frightened, are on the point of refusing, so Caspian offers the honour of the voyage rather than an order, and lets it be known that whoever hangs back will not be counted among the men who sailed to the world's end. Every man volunteers, and the Dawn Treader sails on into the last sea.

In the last sea the water turns sweet and drinkable and fills the crew with light instead of hunger; they can look at the sun directly, they need almost no sleep, and everyone begins to feel younger. Under the ship they see a sunlit country of sea people with herds and a city. At length the ship reaches a vast plain of white lilies and can go no further. Caspian announces that he will leave his ship and sail on to the world's end, and is told by Reepicheep and then by Aslan himself that a king may not abandon his kingdom; he returns to his duty, and to Ramandu's daughter, whom he means to marry. Reepicheep takes his coracle over the great standing wave at the world's end, and is not seen in Narnia again. Lucy, Edmund and Eustace go on foot through the shallows to a wall of water where a white Lamb beside a fire becomes Aslan, who opens a doorway home. He tells Lucy and Edmund that they are too old to come back to Narnia, and that they were brought there so that they might know him under another name in their own world. The three land in the bedroom in England; the Dawn Treader turns for home, and the sleepers wake.

Beyond Ramandu's island the sea grows sweet, shallow and blindingly bright, the crew need no sleep or food, and the ship comes at last to a level plain of white lilies through which it can no longer sail. Caspian announces that he will leave the ship and go on to the world's end himself; Reepicheep tells him plainly that a king may not abandon his people, and Aslan, appearing to him alone in his cabin, sends him back to his duty and to Ramandu's daughter, whom he will marry. Reepicheep goes on alone in his coracle, drops his sword, and passes over the standing wave at the world's end, never seen in Narnia again. Lucy, Edmund and Eustace walk on through the shallows to a green wall of water and meet a white Lamb beside a fire, who becomes Aslan and opens a way home for them. He tells Lucy and Edmund that they are now too old to return to Narnia, and that the reason they were brought there was so that they might come to know him by another name in their own world. The three arrive back in the bedroom in England. The three lords wake when the enchantment is broken, the Dawn Treader turns for home with the quest completed, and Eustace returns a changed boy whom his mother finds tiresomely improved.