The conspirators Mohiam, Scytale, and Edric meet on Wallach IX and agree to destroy Paul using a ghola of Duncan Idaho.

Princess Irulan agrees to join the conspiracy against Paul, motivated by her desire to secure her place in the new dynasty.

Guild navigator Edric arrives as ambassador and presents Paul with the ghola Hayt, a replica grown from Duncan Idaho's corpse.

Paul accepts the ghola Hayt despite recognizing the gift as a deliberate trap designed to destroy him.

Chani begins a Fremen fertility diet and conceives Paul's heir, but her pregnancy develops at a dangerously accelerated pace.

Scytale murders Lichna with poisoned darts and assumes her appearance to infiltrate Paul's palace.

Paul sees through Scytale's disguise as Lichna but agrees to visit Otheym's house on his own terms.

Otheym gives Paul the Tleilaxu dwarf Bijaz, who carries the names of all Fremen traitors encoded as a distrans.

A stone burner detonates at Otheym's house, killing everyone inside and destroying Paul's eyesight.

Paul refuses Fremen exile despite his blindness, using his prescient vision to navigate in place of his eyes.

Korba is exposed as a traitor at the Imperial Council and publicly humiliated by Paul's supernatural sight.

Bijaz uses specialized vocal commands to secretly implant a killing compulsion into the ghola Hayt.

Chani dies in childbirth at Sietch Tabr due to complications caused by Irulan's years of contraceptive poisoning.

Paul speaks the trigger phrase and Hayt overcomes his compulsion, reclaiming his true identity as Duncan Idaho.

Paul kills Scytale after refusing to surrender his throne, then exiles himself into the desert according to Fremen custom.

Twelve years after seizing the throne, Emperor Paul Atreides faces a coalition of enemies — the Bene Gesserit, the Spacing Guild, and the Bene Tleilax — who conspire to destroy him using a ghola replica of his dead mentor Duncan Idaho. Paul accepts the ghola despite recognizing the trap, walking knowingly into a series of dangers that include a Tleilaxu assassin, Fremen traitors, and an atomic ambush that blinds him. Stripped of his physical sight but not his prescience, Paul presses on, exposing conspirators and traveling to the desert stronghold of Sietch Tabr for the birth of his child. His beloved Chani dies in childbirth, triggering the compulsion planted in the ghola — but the ghola overcomes it and reclaims his identity as Duncan Idaho. Paul kills the last conspirator Scytale, then walks into the desert in voluntary exile, fulfilling the Fremen tradition he once defied and ending his reign as Emperor.

Paul's reign, the conspiracy against him, and his tragic fall as Emperor.

Scytale, disguised as Duncan Idaho, visits Fremen general Farok and collects distrans data through Farok's blind son.

Paul and Chani discuss her secret visit to Sietch Tabr to address her infertility and her longing for the desert.

The Imperial Council debates whether the Spacing Guild will succeed in producing spice offworld with a stolen sandworm.

Irulan visits Mohiam in prison, and Mohiam orders Irulan to administer an abortifacient to Chani if she conceives.

Alia trains recklessly at lethal danger levels and Paul intervenes, deactivating the device with a precisely thrown dagger.

Paul conducts a private audience with Edric and Scytale, then orders Edric's provocateurs killed in the palace gardens.

Paul compares himself unfavorably to Genghis Khan and Hitler and orders Stilgar to study the history of ancient despots.

Hayt flies Alia back from the desert, and after debating philosophy and identity, he kisses her.

Paul meets Mohiam privately and offers to artificially inseminate Irulan if the Bene Gesserit agree to leave Chani alone.

Chani discovers that Irulan has been secretly dosing her with contraceptives for years and confronts Paul furiously.

Paul witnesses Alia's public rite for pilgrims and realizes his sister has foreseen the same doomed future as him.

Paul and Chani share a tender moment in their chambers, and Paul promises their child will lead an even greater empire.

Alia reads a letter from the Lady Jessica warning of the deadly paradox of fusing religious belief with governmental power.

Chani sees a giant sandworm and children with muddy feet at Sietch Tabr, mourning the changes Paul's empire has wrought.

Alia spares Irulan and assigns her to write Paul's history; Alia and Duncan then declare their love for one another.

While the main conspiracy unfolds in secret, a parallel web of personal conflicts and political maneuvering shapes the fate of every major character. Scytale recruits disillusioned Fremen traitors, Irulan receives orders to poison Chani, and Paul struggles privately with the weight of empire and his love for Chani. Secondary characters like Alia and Stilgar reveal their own frustrations with Paul's reign, as the costs of the Jihad and the erosion of Fremen tradition breed resentment even among his closest allies. Paul attempts to outmaneuver the Bene Gesserit through a secret negotiation with Mohiam, while Chani confronts the betrayal that has been poisoning her for years. The pool closes in the novel's aftermath, as Alia assumes power, Irulan finds her true purpose, and a new love is declared amid the ruins of Paul's empire.

The hidden alliances, personal struggles, and quiet moments behind the throne.

Scytale murders Farok and his son with poisoned darts immediately after extracting distrans information from them.

Alia senses Paul's agitation during Hayt's presentation and recognizes that the ghola carries the essence of Duncan Idaho.

Hayt confesses to Paul that he was sent to destroy him but feels deep loyalty and begs to be dismissed.

Irulan realizes the Bene Gesserit intend to sacrifice her life and resolves to give them far more than they bargained for.

Alia investigates the body of a murdered girl in the desert and is troubled by persistent thoughts about Tleilaxu Face Dancers.

Paul enters a spice trance and sees a vision of a falling moon, resolving that he must discredit himself to end the Jihad.

Scytale warns Edric that the conspirators' mutual incompatibility makes them dangerously weak and their failure will echo for centuries.

Paul deliberately provokes Hayt with questions about ghola memory recovery, briefly drawing out Duncan Idaho's underlying humanity.

Paul identifies Scytale's disguise as Lichna by recognizing visible signs of semuta addiction that the real Lichna would show.

Otheym admits to Paul that he dislikes the world Paul's empire has made and says 'Do what you must, Usul.'

Paul appoints Alia regent before departing with Chani for Sietch Tabr, knowing he will not return as Emperor.

Alia takes a massive dose of spice and has a vision revealing that Hayt is both danger and salvation for Paul.

Hayt warns Paul about a killing compulsion Bijaz secretly planted in him before Chani goes into labor.

Paul discovers that Chani bore twins — a boy and a girl — shocking him since his prescience showed only a daughter.

Paul's oracular vision fails completely after Scytale's death, leaving him truly and permanently blind for the first time.

Beneath the surface of the main plot, a series of private revelations and pivotal choices steadily lock Paul into the doomed future he has foreseen. Scytale's cold murders, Irulan's defiant resolve, and Paul's spice visions each quietly close off alternate paths, while Hayt's growing awareness of his buried identity hints at the one unknown that could yet change everything. Paul's ability to see through disguises and traps gives him tactical advantages, but his embrace of a single prophesied future prevents him from recognizing its gaps — including Bijaz's hidden compulsion and the existence of his unborn son. The compulsion nearly succeeds where every other scheme failed, but Duncan Idaho's loyalty proves stronger than Tleilaxu conditioning. The pool ends with Paul stripped of his prescience and his crown, facing a future he can no longer see.