Siona and her rebel team steal plans and journals from Leto's Citadel; D-wolves kill her companions but she escapes.

The older Duncan ghola attacks Leto with a lasgun during a meeting and is immediately crushed to death.

A new Duncan ghola is revived from an axolotl tank by the Tleilaxu and sent to serve as Leto's Commander.

Leto's royal procession travels to the Festival City of Onn for decennial celebrations and meetings with delegates.

Tleilaxu assassins attack Leto's procession disguised as copies of Duncan; the real Duncan strips naked to identify himself.

Tleilaxu ambassador Nunepi is publicly flogged and falsely accused of spreading rumors to conceal an attempt on Leto's life.

Leto meets the new Ixian ambassador Hwi Noree for the first time and is immediately overwhelmed by his feelings for her.

Three bombs explode in Onn; Leto crushes the Tleilaxu attackers with his body and afterward confesses his love to Hwi.

Leto leads Siona deep into the Sareer desert for a survival test, refusing to guide her or intervene.

Near death on the fifth day, Siona drinks spice-essence from Leto's body and experiences a prescient vision of machines hunting humanity.

Siona discovers she cannot be seen in Leto's prescient visions and realizes she holds the genetic key to human survival.

Siona agrees to command the Fish Speakers; Leto moves the wedding venue to Tuono Village, where she and Duncan are staying.

Siona and Duncan climb the barrier wall surrounding the Sareer and choose the bridge over the Idaho River as their attack site.

Nayla fires her lasgun at the bridge; Moneo and Hwi fall to their deaths as Leto plunges into the Idaho River.

Leto dies in a cave near Sietch Tabr, reveals the hidden spice stockpile, and confirms he has seen humanity's survival.

God Emperor Leto II rules the universe with absolute tyrannical authority, hoarding spice and conducting a breeding program to prevent humanity's extinction. A rebel named Siona steals his journals while a new Duncan ghola is installed as Commander, setting the novel's central conflict in motion. Attacks by the Tleilaxu and an unexpected love for the Ixian ambassador Hwi Noree complicate Leto's cold purpose. Leto tests Siona in the deep desert, forcing her to drink his spice-essence and directly confront the Golden Path's horrifying stakes. Convinced of her role and committed to rebellion, Siona and Duncan devise a plot to assassinate Leto during his wedding procession. The bridge over the Idaho River is destroyed, Hwi and Moneo die, and Leto falls into the water — his body dissolving as his sandtrout disperse to revive the desert and complete the Golden Path.

Leto's reign, rebellion, and fall across 3,500 years.

Nayla sends an encrypted report to Leto about Siona's rebel activities in the City of Onn.

Moneo disposes of the dead Duncan ghola's body and prepares the Citadel for the arrival of a replacement.

Siona exposes her fellow rebel Topri as one of Leto's spies during a secret underground meeting.

Hwi Noree defends Leto before the Inquisitors of Ix, arguing his transformation is a sacrifice; they appoint her ambassador anyway.

Leto reveals his monstrous hybrid body to the new Duncan in a darkened room, first speaking in Paul Atreides' voice.

Moneo explains the all-female army to Duncan and reveals that he himself is a descendant of a previous Duncan ghola.

Reverend Mothers Anteac and Luyseyal learn of the Tleilaxu attack plan and warn a Fish Speaker to alert Leto.

Leto confesses to Sister Chenoeh that both he and his sister Ghanima were Abominations who allied with ancestors to survive.

Leto meets Reverend Mothers Anteac and Luyseyal at False Seitch; they warn him about the Ixians' secret navigation machine.

Duncan confronts Leto about the Siaynoq ritual, accusing him of building a theocracy and refusing to worship him as a god.

Moneo warns Hwi that the God Emperor is a different person to each who serves him.

Leto announces his engagement to Hwi Noree; the Fish Speakers, who consider themselves his only brides, react with open distress.

Moneo tells Duncan and Hwi that seeing the vision of human extinction made him grateful to simply be a follower.

Fish Speakers capture Malky hiding in a technology-shielded room in Tuono; Moneo kills him on Leto's orders.

Duncan kills Nayla with her own lasgun inside the cave as Leto lies dying, blaming her for Hwi's death.

Behind Leto's empire lies a web of schemes, loyalties, and quiet devotions that shape every event in the novel. Siona's rebel network operates underground even as Leto's spy Nayla watches from within, and a new Duncan ghola is introduced to a world he finds unsettling and morally compromised. The Bene Gesserit play politics, warning Leto of threats while plotting their own, while Hwi Noree gradually renounces her Ixian masters to serve Leto in earnest. Duncan's repeated confrontations with Leto over religion, ghola consent, and the all-female army reveal the cracks in his loyalty, even as Moneo's faith deepens into something total and self-erasing. As Leto's wedding plans cause distress among the Fish Speakers, Moneo accepts his role in the Golden Path with resigned devotion, dying on the bridge still crying out the name of his god.

The players, schemes, and devotions behind Leto's empire.

Archaeologist Hadi Benotto announces the discovery of Leto's original journals and audio recordings buried at Dar-es-Balat on Arrakis.

Leto watches Siona steal his journals and deliberately chooses not to interfere, intending all along for her to succeed.

Leto tells Moneo that Siona may be the culmination of his breeding program — a human invisible to prescient detection.

Nayla reports to Leto that Siona is beginning to fade from his prescient view, confirming her unique genetic trait.

Leto meets Hwi and decides not to use his prescience to foresee their relationship, choosing the rare gift of surprise.

Siona takes Duncan on a detour to Goygoa village, where he unexpectedly encounters his predecessor's wife and children.

Hwi formally renounces her Ixian masters, agrees to marry Leto, and promises to share her soul with him as Worm and wife.

Duncan confronts Leto about the ethics of manufacturing ghola after ghola without their knowledge or consent.

Siona confronts Leto at the Citadel, declaring he has no right to rule and is no different from any other tyrant.

Hwi and Duncan sleep together; she ends the affair immediately and chooses Leto, deciding his need is greater than Duncan's.

After the desert test, Leto scans the immediate future and sees Siona's tracks in the sand but cannot see her body.

Leto contemplates leaping from the Citadel tower to end his life but stops when he sees the Golden Path flicker out.

Siona reads the stolen journals aloud with Duncan in Tuono and commits to assassination, declaring that the Worm must go.

Duncan scales the sheer barrier wall and resolves that Leto is no longer Atreides, transferring his loyalty fully to Siona.

A future archaeologist's report confirms that Siona's descendants have scattered invisibly across the universe, fulfilling Leto's Golden Path.

The novel opens and closes with a framing device set centuries in the future, anchoring Leto's millennia-long plan within a larger arc of discovery and consequence. Leto deliberately allows Siona to steal his journals and tells Moneo she is the culmination of his breeding program, setting in motion the very rebellion he has engineered. A series of private revelations — Nayla's report on Siona's fading prescient signature, Hwi's formal vow to share her soul with Leto, Duncan's crisis over his existence as a ghola — gradually expose the human stakes beneath the political machinery. Siona's confrontation with Leto before her desert test and Hwi and Duncan's brief affair each mark decisive shifts in loyalty and desire that accelerate the novel's climax. Leto's quiet contemplation of suicide and Siona and Duncan's midnight commitment to assassination confirm that the God Emperor's death will be as carefully arranged as everything else in his reign. The epilogue's confirmation that Siona's invisible descendants have scattered across the universe closes the loop on 3,500 years of sacrifice.