At its heart, the novel navigates two parallel tracks—the ethereal and the earthy.

MacDonald’s prose mixes simple diction suitable for children with rich descriptive passages and moral exposition. The narrative alternates between Irene’s interior, domestic scenes and Curdie’s action-driven episodes, balancing wonder and adventure. Dialogue often carries moral lessons; episodic structure suits its fairy-tale roots.

The story takes place in a lonely mountain kingdom where the King’s young daughter, Princess Irene, lives in a large castle under the care of her nurse, Lootie. Unknown to the humans, the mountain is honeycombed with caverns inhabited by a race of grotesque, misshapen creatures called Goblins.

Eight-year-old Princess Irene lives a lonely life in a grand, rambling castle on a mountain, unaware of the goblins lurking in the mines below. Her character arc is one of internal awakening. One rainy evening, she discovers a mysterious, ageless great-great-grandmother living in the castle’s attic, spinning an invisible thread.

This grandmother represents divine guidance or intuition. Irene cannot prove the grandmother exists to anyone else—not to her nursemaid Lootie, nor to her new friend Curdie. Yet, Irene learns to trust the thread. In an era that worships empirical evidence, Irene’s journey in "The Princess and the Goblin" offers a radical defense of faith: believing what you have seen even when others tell you it is impossible.