Lewis enters Ransom's dark cottage and finds a coffin on the floor and a terrifying unseen presence.

Ransom explains he is being sent to Perelandra and shows Lewis the coffin-shaped vessel for the journey.

Ransom climbs naked into the coffin with a blindfold over his eyes and Lewis fastens the lid.

Lewis and Humphrey return to find the coffin has arrived with Ransom inside, covered in red flowers and bleeding.

After the coffin dissolves above Venus, Ransom soars over the ocean-covered planet and lands on a floating island.

Ransom and the Queen meet properly on her island and learn their similar appearance reflects Maleldil's nature.

The Queen leads Ransom to the Fixed Land, where they climb to high ground and watch a ship land in the sea.

Weston emerges from a boat with a revolver and forces Ransom to stay while the Queen leaves before nightfall.

After a debate about good and evil, Weston collapses and bleeds from the mouth; Ransom throws the revolver into the sea.

Ransom finds the Un-Man has already reached the Queen and is arguing she should disobey Maleldil by living on the Fixed Land.

Ransom discovers the Un-Man torturing frogs and, overwhelmed by the presence of pure evil, loses consciousness.

Maleldil speaks to Ransom in the darkness, connecting his name to sacrifice, and Ransom resolves to kill the Un-Man.

Ransom attacks the Un-Man in a series of brutal rounds until the Un-Man mounts a fish and flees into the sea.

Ransom and the Un-Man reach a beach where Ransom strangles him, then realizes he is trapped in a dark cavern.

The King and Queen arrive in a valley, receive sovereignty over Perelandra from the Oyarsas, and place Ransom in a flower-covered coffin.

Ransom is called by an ancient cosmic mission to travel to the unfallen planet of Venus, known as Perelandra. He arrives on a world of floating islands and meets a green Queen who has never known evil or disobedience. When his old enemy Weston arrives and is possessed by a satanic force called the Un-Man, Ransom must fight to protect the Queen from a sophisticated temptation. After failing to defeat the Un-Man through argument alone, Ransom resolves to fight physically and pursues him across land and sea in a brutal battle. He strangles the Un-Man on a dark beach and survives a harrowing journey through underground caves before reaching a valley where the King and Queen receive sovereignty over Perelandra and send Ransom home.

The headline journey from Earth to Venus and back.

Lewis forgets his bag on the train and notices all the lights are out near Ransom's cottage.

Lewis meets the Oyarsa of Malacandra, a featureless flame hiding in the cottage the whole time, and swears to his duties.

Ransom climbs onto a floating island and discovers a yellow fruit that produces a sensation of overwhelming pleasure.

Ransom wakes to find a small dragon with reddish-gold scales coiled around the base of a silver-leaved tree.

Ransom discovers globes hanging from branches that burst and drench him in a cool, refreshing liquid.

Ransom swims across to the Queen's island in the growing dark after their first meeting at the water's edge.

The Queen tells Ransom she is the only woman on Perelandra and is waiting for the King so they can have children.

Ransom explains death to the Queen, who concludes all challenges Maleldil sends are purposeful and should be met with joy.

The Queen explains to Ransom that living on the Fixed Land is forbidden, though she does not know the reason.

Ransom tears the skin on his knee while climbing the Fixed Land and uses the wound to explain pain to the Queen.

The Un-Man spends many days telling the Queen stories of courageous women from Earth's history to tempt her toward independence.

The Un-Man dresses the Queen in bird-feather robes and shows her a mirror, teaching her to see herself from the outside.

Ransom asks the Queen to send both men away; she refuses until she fully understands the conflict between them.

Weston appears to resurface during the sea chase and begs Ransom for comfort as he confronts his own death.

The King describes to Ransom how the Evil One tried and failed to tempt him during his separation from the Queen.

Before the great conflict begins, Ransom explores the sensory richness of Perelandra, discovering its extraordinary fruits, creatures, and natural laws one by one. He meets the Queen gradually, learning about her world, her patient waiting for the King, and her innocent understanding of Maleldil's commands. When Weston arrives and transforms, the Un-Man employs subtle tactics over many days — storytelling, clothing, mirrors — to gradually reshape the Queen's sense of self and obedience. Ransom fights a draining battle of words and influence, growing exhausted while the Un-Man never rests, and seeks help from the Queen herself to no avail. The story's secondary events illuminate both the texture of Perelandra's innocence and the slow, insidious nature of evil's approach. At the last, the King reveals how the same temptation that nearly undid the Queen was defeated on his side as well, completing the picture of Perelandra's salvation.

The quiet wonders and slower battles that shaped Perelandra's fate.

Ransom reveals to Lewis that hostile eldila deliberately caused all the fear and paranoia Lewis experienced walking to the cottage.

Ransom spots what he thinks is a hump on a large fish but realizes it is a green woman stepping ashore.

Ransom begins to wonder whether his purpose on Perelandra is to teach the Queen what Maleldil wants her to know.

Ransom races ahead of the Queen toward Weston's arriving boat but fails to prevent their first meeting.

Weston tells Ransom he has transcended good and evil, declaring himself the conductor of the universal Force that drives all things.

Ransom recognizes that Weston has become the Un-Man, a being that never needs sleep and can tempt the Queen without rest.

The Un-Man repeatedly calls Ransom's name through the night as a psychological attack, continuing until Ransom stops responding.

Ransom loses his temper in an argument with the Un-Man and openly battles him in front of the watching Queen.

Ransom debates alone in the darkness whether his true purpose on Perelandra is to physically kill the Un-Man.

Maleldil causes the Un-Man to fall asleep and directs Ransom to rest beside the Queen before the coming battle.

Ransom wakes to find his body healed and strengthened and regards the high probability of his own death as a minor matter.

A surge of pure, righteous hatred empowers Ransom during the fight and drives the Un-Man back toward the sea.

Ransom eats seaweed among the merpeople during the sea chase and realizes the food is causing him to forget the Queen.

Ransom carves an epitaph for Weston into the translucent rock of the underground chamber where he rested and healed.

The Oyarsas of Malacandra and Perelandra reveal themselves to Ransom and take on masculine and feminine human forms to await the King and Queen.

From the moment Ransom reveals that hostile forces deliberately attacked Lewis on his walk to the cottage, the story is defined by a series of pivotal realizations and turning points. Ransom moves gradually from confused observer to purposeful teacher to reluctant warrior as he recognizes the true nature of the Un-Man's threat and his own role in opposing it. The Un-Man's psychological warfare — calling Ransom's name through the night, making the Queen see herself as others see her — forces Ransom to confront his own fear, anger, and sense of helplessness. A divine intervention from Maleldil finally clarifies Ransom's mission and equips him for the physical battle ahead, where a surge of righteous hatred proves to be a gift rather than a sin. By the time Ransom carves Weston's epitaph into rock and watches the Oyarsas take human form to greet the new rulers, the moral architecture of the story — sacrifice, obedience, and the power of pure hatred of evil — has been fully revealed.