Chapter 2. King Dor
Dor works hard, solving the problems that arise. But when the week is over, Trent doesn't return. Nor the next week. Dor's friends, Grundy, Chet Centaur, and Smash Ogre help him rule, but finally they all decide Trent must be found. Crombie points out the direction of the greatest danger to Xanth--it's somewhere far south.
Chapter 3. Wedding Spell
Dor travels to Good Magician Humfrey, who tells him that far south on Centaur Isle is a centaur magician. Then, as King, he has the job of wedding Humfrey to the voluptuous Gorgon. The Zombie Master agrees to serve as King while Dor is away.
Chapter 4. Hungry Dune Dor, Irene, Chet, Smash, and Grundy travel in a small magic boat, with educated Chet steering them just in between deep water, which has sea monsters, and the shore, which has other dangers. When a sea dragon chases them, they make a deal with a sand dune; if it promises not to eat them, they will lure the dragon into its grasp. The Dune swallows the dragon, but tries to catch them, too. Irene makes grass grow, which turns the Dune into solid ground. They make another boat with bulrushes, put a ring in its nose, and it rushes them towards Centaur Isle. Dor has a dream where King Trent tells them to rescue him with the Centaur Aisle.
Chapter 5. Girding Loins
They travel across a few islands, encountering one with several warning signs about "Loins," king of the jungle. To escape them, Dor and friends travel an underground tunnel made by a pirate and find treasure at the end, including a cursed salve that allows the user walk on smoke and clouds.
Chapter 6. Silver Lining
Trapped on an island with a sea monster coming to clean the shore, they light a fire and use the salve to walk up the smoke. After a great difficulty with getting new sources of smoke and keeping away from the lunging monster, they make it to a cloud and drift south. Wyverns attack them, and funnel storm with silver lining tries to grab them, and they almost drift into Mundania where their magic would disappear. The weakened salve sinks them through the storm cloud, and a centaur rescues them from the ocean and sails them to Centaur Isle.
Chapter 7. Dastardly Deed
Once they arrive, Dor receives a gift delivered from Humfrey; a compass that points out magicians. They use it to find Arnolde Centaur, a middle-aged historian. When confronted by the obscene possibility that he may be a magician, he flees in a boat to an island just beyond the edge of magic, which he insists is part of Xanth. They realize what Arnolde's Talent is: he can create an aisle of magic in Mundania! However, since he has a talent, he will be exiled from Centaur Isle. Dor realizes it's the curse of the salve--to do a dastardly deed before the next full moon--which they have done by ruining Arnolde's life. The centaur agrees to help them rescue King Trent.
Chapter 8. Mundane Mystery
The injured Chet stays behind while Dor, Irene, Smash, Grundy, and Arnolde slide across a rainbow to the northernmost tip of Xanth. They enter Mundania, but seem to have gone into the wrong time, as there is no sign of Trent's passing. With an invisibility spell on everyone but Dor, they travel into a modern city, dodging strange metal dragons called cars. They travel to a library and meet a middle-aged archivist named Ichabod. Arnolde and Ichabod get along quite well, and soon find the medieval kingdom they think Trent went to. It's called Onesti; Dor's way of spelling Honesty, the hint that Trent dropped him before he left.
Chapter 9. Onesti's Policy
The group realizes that the color of the water at the Mundania/Xanth border reveals what time and place of Mundania they'll travel into. When the water turns black, Smash rows them upriver, until they reach the Kingdom of Onesti. After a rude welcome, our angry heroes barge in. They meet Oary, temporary king until his nephew Omen returns, if ever, from his disappearance while out hunting. As Dor grows sleepy, the table tells him that the feast Oary served them was drugged. The same thing happened to Trent and Omen. Dor tells Grundy to hide while he still can, then loses consciousness.
Chapter 10. Hate Love
Dor, Irene, and Smash wake up in a dark, crumbling cell. Grundy had escaped and Arnolde was locked in a stable. Figuring they were being spied on, Dor sticks his arm through a small hole in the wall and holds Irene's hand, squeezing it once when he says the truth and twice when he tells a lie. They (squeezing twice) said that Smash's strength came from his anger, and he got angry when not fed. Food came quickly after that. They learn that a Xanth spy had once taught a guard their language. Dor and Irene begin talking about how they really hate each other, squeezing twice, and soon become engaged. The king tries to torture Irene to get Dor to talk, but she fights so hard that she is returned to her cell. Grundy brings Irene a certain seed and some hairs from Arnolde's tail; just enough magic to get it started. Grundy takes the seed back to Arnolde, where it quickly sprouts into a Tangle Tree, smashing the stall. Arnolde escapes and runs to the outside wall of the cells. Smash's strength returns and he bashes their way free.
Chapter 11. Good Omen
They climb up to Oary's window, using magic vines. Dor discovers that he can use his magic without giving spoken commands, and tricks Oary into revealing that Good King Omen, Trent, and Iris are alive and locked in the dungeon at Castle Ocna. Oary throws the talking sword and bag of seeds out the window, where Dor and Irene recover them. They flee from the guards to Ocna, using a resurrection plant to distract them; the plant make them look like ghosts from the guard's memories. Irene, appearing as one guard's fiancé who died of fever, tells him that Omen is alive. The guard spreads the news while they continued over a mountain. After distracting some more guards, they run to a bridge only to discover that it's broken. Using the last of the salve, they cross the chasm by its fog, but Arnolde is shot in the leg by and arrow.
Chapter 12. Midnight Sun
They sneak into Ocna, Arnolde angling himself so the aisle reaches into the cells. They break in, and Irene takes a liking to the handsome King Omen. They battle guards until they reach the courtroom and, after a battle of wit with Oary, convince the servants that Omen is real. Oary, seeing that he is beaten, switches tactics, claming that he was only holding the throne until Omen returned. King Trent gives Oary over to Dor, so he can gain kingly experience by figuring out what to do with him. Dor realizes that Oary's deviousness would be of great value as an ambassador to the hostile tribes outside the kingdom. At first, Omen thinks that marrying Irene will be a great way to seal the alliance, until he learns that she is betrothed to Dor. Instead, Dor gives him the magnificent Midnight Sunstone, a gift from Jewel at Humfrey's wedding. The alliance was sealed.