Working as a structuralist and film theorist, Chatman uses this book to study the ins and outs of narrative in a variety of texts. As you'd expect, the act of narration is one of the main topics, with Chatman outlining the many possibilities that are available—for example, the presence or absence of an obvious narrator.
Chatman also discusses the factors that we need to consider when analyzing how a narrative plays out, including the order of events, causality (how one event brings about another), and time and space. In addition to the structural stuff, Chatman also addresses the question of the reader's (or viewer's) role in interpreting texts, and he goes ahead and analyzes some texts himself to show us how it can be done. For a useful example, check out the section in which he looks at a comic strip through a narratological lens.
What's the difference between reading and what Chatman calls "reading out"?
Chatman refers to the "naturalizing" of a narrative. What does this mean and how can it be achieved?