Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Exposition
This Tornado Loves You
After narrowly surviving a tornado, Patience gives birth to Abyssinia Jackson, our leading lady for the rest of the book. Abby leads a pretty delightful childhood—she is surrounded by loving adults, including her father, Strong, and Mother Barker; she does well in school; she has a best friend, Lily Norene. Things could definitely be worse.
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
Vengeance Is Sleeping
Just as Abby came into the world on the heels of a tornado, a tornado rips through her life, uprooting everything. Her father's business is destroyed, leaving him destroyed, too, to the point where he up and leaves Abby and Patience. This brings hard feelings and financial troubles, and things are officially unsettled on the home front.
Perhaps more importantly, though, the tornado destroys Trembling Sally's house. And while you might think that Trembling Sally would be grateful to Abby since she finds her afterward and takes her to Mother Barker for help, the exact opposite turns out to be true: Trembling Sally loses her mind and becomes obsessed with exacting revenge on Abby for the tornado's actions. Things are officially tense in our main girl's life.
Climax
Middle Cyclone
Things go from bad to worse when Abby is raped by Brother Jacobs, a deacon in her church. Only ten years old and still reeling from the loss of her father, Abby is severely injured and goes mute. She lies in bed, neither moving nor making a sound, as Mother Barker and Patience keep constant vigil over her.
This is the moment Abby will either rally herself from or succumb to—it will either kill her spirit completely or she will emerge gripping her spirit more tightly than ever before.
Falling Action
Don't Forget Me
Trembling Sally continues to stalk Abby through her days, but when she tries to drown her, Strong suddenly returns to save his daughter. So yay. And then, when Abby finishes school at the top of her class, Mother Barker takes her under her wing to teach her everything she knows about midwifery and folk healing, leaving Abby her home when she dies so she can start a Healing House for the town. Abby, it seems, is finally standing on solid ground.
Resolution
Magpie to the Morning
Trembling Sally is still around, and you know there won't be peace in Abby's life until that woman is resolved. When she sets fire to the house Abby is sleeping in with Lily Norene's children, Trembling Sally winds up taking care of herself: She dies in the fire, though Abby and the children escape.
As Abby and the local women gather to tend to Lily Norene's children, Abby recognizes the continual power of women and, as she does, she steps into her own power, too.