The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

After Edmund betrays his siblings to the White Witch, the Beavers lead the children to Aslan, the great lion and true ruler of Narnia, who has returned to the Stone Table. The Witch comes to Aslan's camp and invokes the "Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time," an ancient law giving her the right to kill any traitor, claiming Edmund's life. Aslan speaks with her privately and persuades her to accept his own life in Edmund's place, though he tells no one of this bargain. That night, Susan and Lucy secretly follow Aslan to the Stone Table and watch in horror as the Witch and her creatures humiliate, bind, shave, and kill him on the table, believing she has won.

The next morning, the girls find the Stone Table broken and Aslan alive again. He explains that the Witch knew only the Deep Magic, not the older "Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time," which decrees that when a willing, innocent victim is killed in a traitor's stead, death itself works backward. Aslan carries Susan and Lucy to the Witch's castle, where he breathes life back into the courtyard full of creatures she had turned to stone, including Mr. Tumnus. This newly freed army joins Peter, Edmund, and the Narnian forces, who are already engaged in battle against the Witch's army. Aslan arrives in time to turn the tide, and he personally kills the White Witch, ending her reign and the endless winter.

With the Witch defeated, the four Pevensie children are crowned at Cair Paravel: Peter becomes High King, with Susan, Edmund, and Lucy as King and Queens beside him. They reign over Narnia for many years, growing into wise and capable adults, each known by a title (Peter the Magnificent, Susan the Gentle, Edmund the Just, Lucy the Valiant), while Aslan appears periodically before departing again on his own business.

Years later, while hunting the legendary White Stag, the grown Pevensies ride deep into the forest and stumble back upon the lamp-post marking the edge of Narnia. Passing it, they tumble back through the wardrobe and find themselves children again in the Professor's house, with no time having passed in England since they first left. They tell the Professor everything, and rather than disbelieving them, he tells them that he believes their story completely and assures them that they will find their way back to Narnia again someday, when they least expect it.

The Pevensie siblings — Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy — are English children who were sent to the countryside during the war and discovered the magical land of Narnia through an old wardrobe. Narnia had been held under an endless winter by the White Witch, who falsely claimed the throne. Lucy was the first to find Narnia and befriended the faun Mr. Tumnus; Edmund later fell under the Witch's influence after she tempted him with enchanted Turkish delight and the promise of being made a prince, and he betrayed his siblings' location to her.

All four children eventually entered Narnia together and were sheltered by Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, who told them of a prophecy: Narnia's long winter would end when two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve sat on the four thrones at Cair Paravel, and that the true king of Narnia, the lion Aslan, was returning. Edmund slipped away to the Witch and told her of Aslan's return, putting his siblings and the Beavers in danger, but they escaped to meet Aslan at the Stone Table, gathering magical gifts from Father Christmas along the way.

The White Witch pursued her claim on Edmund's life under an ancient law called the Deep Magic, but Aslan offered himself in Edmund's place instead. The Witch killed Aslan at the Stone Table that night, only for him to rise again the next morning through a deeper, older magic that reverses death when an innocent sacrifices himself for a traitor. Aslan then freed the Witch's stone-prisoners and led the Narnian forces to victory in battle, personally killing the White Witch and ending her rule and the eternal winter.

The book closes with Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy crowned as Kings and Queens of Narnia at Cair Paravel. They rule together for many years and grow into adults — Peter as High King — while Aslan comes and goes as he pleases rather than staying. Then, while hunting the White Stag, the four grown monarchs stumble back through the wardrobe and find themselves children again in England, with no time having passed. The Professor believes their story. As a reader moving into the next book, you should know the Witch's tyranny and winter have been fully broken, Aslan is a living if intermittent presence in the land, the four Pevensies are remembered as Narnia's Kings and Queens, and Narnia is a world of talking beasts, fauns, dwarfs, and other peoples, free of the Witch at last.