Screwtape writes his first letter to Wormwood, advising him to manipulate the patient through emotional appeals rather than logical argument.

The patient unexpectedly converts to Christianity, frustrating Screwtape and forcing a new strategy to reclaim his soul.

World War II begins, bringing air raid threats and anxious uncertainty into the patient's everyday life.

Screwtape explains his theory of undulation, predicting that the patient's faith will naturally rise and fall in cycles.

The patient befriends a group of rich, superficially intellectual, and casually skeptical people who mock religion.

The patient drifts into a double life, socializing with skeptical friends on weekends while still attending church.

The patient recommits to Christianity after enjoying a book and taking a restorative walk to an old mill.

Screwtape advises exploiting the concept of being in love to push the patient toward lust or a poor marriage choice.

The patient resists sexual temptation, strengthening his character against future attempts by the demons.

The patient falls in love with a devout Christian woman from a genuinely faithful family.

Screwtape transforms into a large centipede in rage upon learning of the patient's new relationship with the Christian woman.

Air raid bombings intensify near the patient's town, putting his life in direct danger.

The patient endures his first air raid feeling afraid but fulfills all his duties and perhaps a bit more.

The patient is killed during an air raid and his soul immediately ascends to Heaven.

Screwtape furiously vows to devour Wormwood for allowing the patient's soul to escape to Heaven.

Screwtape assigns his nephew Wormwood to corrupt a young man who has just converted to Christianity, advising him to use emotional manipulation rather than rational argument. As World War II begins, the patient drifts away from faith when he falls in with a group of trendy, skeptical intellectuals and begins living a hollow double life. He recovers his convictions through two simple pleasures — a good book and a walk in nature — and then falls in love with a devout Christian woman from a faithful family. Screwtape and Wormwood scramble to use the relationship against him, but the patient successfully resists their temptations around lust and pride. As air raids intensify, the patient acts with quiet courage, and when he is ultimately killed, his soul escapes to Heaven — a loss that drives Screwtape to vow revenge on Wormwood.

The patient's journey from conversion to heavenly salvation.

Screwtape advises Wormwood to encourage the patient to judge and feel superior to his fellow churchgoers.

Screwtape advises exploiting small irritations between the patient and his mother to breed resentment and self-flattery.

Screwtape instructs Wormwood to corrupt the patient's prayer life by encouraging focus on his own mental states over genuine communion.

Screwtape advises steering the patient's malice toward his immediate neighbors rather than distant, abstract enemies like the Germans.

Screwtape debates whether to reveal Wormwood's existence to the patient, concluding that current Hell policy requires remaining hidden.

Screwtape recommends turning the patient into a pacifist to isolate him socially, provided fear rather than genuine faith is the motivation.

Screwtape warns Wormwood not to let the patient recognize his spiritual drift, as awareness would lead him to repent.

Screwtape analyzes types of laughter and identifies flippancy as most useful to Hell, since it makes everything seem trivial.

Screwtape instructs Wormwood to corrupt the patient's growing humility by engineering pride at the act of being humble.

Screwtape advises directing the patient's attention toward fearful speculation about the future rather than present-moment awareness.

Screwtape advises steering the patient away from his comfortable parish toward a church offering either diluted or sensationalist Christianity.

Screwtape uses the patient's mother as a prime example of gluttony of Delicacy, demanding perfection in small portions rather than excess.

Screwtape warns that mixing Christianity with political causes is only useful when it reduces faith to a mere means to an end.

Screwtape attempts to exploit the patient's girlfriend's mild dismissiveness toward nonbelievers to cultivate spiritual pride in the patient.

Screwtape delivers a speech at the Tempters' Training College banquet, lamenting the declining quality and flavor of modern damned souls.

Screwtape's letters in this pool detail the day-to-day tactical advice he sends Wormwood, covering everything from how to corrupt prayer to how to exploit family friction and social vanity. He advises steering the patient's natural malice toward his immediate neighbors rather than abstract enemies, and recommends keeping Wormwood's existence hidden to encourage comfortable materialism and atheism. When the patient's faith wavers, Screwtape dissects the subversive power of flippancy, the dangers of humility turned to pride, and the value of making the patient obsess over the future rather than the present. Later strategies involve steering the patient toward a spiritually hollow church, exploiting his girlfriend's minor condescension, and corrupting his faith by mixing it with political ideology. The pool ends with Screwtape's banquet speech, in which he laments that a democratic age produces vast numbers of mediocre sinners rather than the bold, flavorful ones Hell truly craves.

Screwtape's tactical advice for corrupting prayer, relationships, and everyday virtue.

Screwtape reassures Wormwood that the patient's conversion is a setback, not a defeat, since converted souls can still be reclaimed.

Screwtape warns Wormwood that wartime suffering often strengthens human faith rather than weakening it, making war a mixed blessing for Hell.

Screwtape explains that God deliberately withholds constant presence from humans to preserve their free will and make faith a meaningful choice.

The patient enters a spiritual trough where faith feels cold and distant, giving the demons a new opening to exploit.

Screwtape reveals that genuine bodily pleasure originates with God, meaning temptation must corrupt pleasure rather than simply eliminate it.

Screwtape confesses that God's claim to love humanity has remained an unsolved mystery and a source of conflict in Hell since Satan's fall.

Screwtape states Hell's core philosophy that love is impossible, since one being's gain must always come at another's expense.

Screwtape explains that true Christian humility means self-forgetfulness rather than self-contempt, revealing a deeper dimension of the patient's growing virtue.

Screwtape explains how men's divided perception of women into idealized and degraded types can corrupt marriage even without overt sexual sin.

Screwtape discovers the patient has recognized his romantic distraction and is actively praying about it, frustrating the demonic strategy.

Screwtape expresses dread that the patient may be killed in an air raid while still in a state of grace, putting his soul beyond Hell's reach.

Screwtape decides to promote cowardice in the patient during the war, fearing that genuine bravery would make pride impossible to cultivate.

Screwtape reports that the patient's courage during the first air raid has left him feeling cowardly rather than proud, undercutting every temptation.

Screwtape reveals at the banquet that democratic conformity now produces vast numbers of mediocre sinners instead of great individual ones.

Screwtape concludes his banquet address by savoring wine made from the souls of self-righteous religious fanatics.

This pool traces the philosophical and emotional turning points that define the patient's spiritual struggle and expose Screwtape's deepest ideological blind spots. Screwtape reveals why God withholds his constant presence to protect free will, why genuine pleasure is not inherently sinful, and why the patient's spiritual troughs are opportunities rather than evidence of permanent defeat. As the patient deepens his faith, Screwtape is forced to articulate Hell's core belief that love is a logical impossibility — a conviction that ironically exposes the limits of demonic understanding and why the demons keep losing. The patient's romance introduces fresh turning points: the temptation of spiritual pride, the danger of marrying for the wrong reasons, and a prayer life that has grown wise enough to recognize its own distractions. In the final movement, the patient's quiet courage during the air raids leaves the demons without a foothold, and Screwtape's banquet speech reveals how Hell has adapted its ancient methods for a conformist democratic age.