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 (Initial Situation)
Curse You, Mathéolus!
In the opening lines of this book, Christine de Pizan describes how she was sitting down at her desk one day when she picked up a new book by a guy named Mathéolus. Looking for some light reading, she opens the book and is annoyed to find that it is mostly a rant against women in general. She puts the book away immediately, but no matter how much she tries to ignore it, she can't help but wonder why all the great men of history have tended to say harsh things about women. After thinking for a long time, she decides that all of these men can't be wrong and that she is truly cursed to be a woman.
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
If You Build It, They Will Come
While Christine is mourning the fact that she's a woman, three magical women appear in her bedroom and tell her not to be sad. These women introduce themselves as Lady Reason, Lady Rectitude, and Lady Justice. They inform Christine that God wants her to build a great city that'll house all of the best women from history and literature. So Christine starts digging some foundations in a nearby field. While building, she speaks to the three magical ladies one by one, asking them questions about the stereotypes that men have created about women. The ladies each give convincing arguments and lots of examples to show why these stereotypes are always wrong. In fact, they insist that women are capable of being just as rational, intelligent, and moral as men, if not more.
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)
We Built This City On Gender Equality (And Rock n' Roll)
Christine finally finishes building the City of Ladies and finds a whole bunch of great women to live inside it. With this complete, she also feels that talking to the three magical ladies (Reason, Rectitude, and Justice) has shown her once and for all that women are just as good in the eyes of God as men are.
Falling Action
Good Night, Sweet Ladies
With their job nicely done, the three magical ladies disappear and leave Christine to live with the rest of the women inside the newly built City of Ladies. Now that her work is done, Christine turns to the women of the book (and probably her female readers, too) and tells them to stay humble and patient. Now that she has established that women are just as good as men, she doesn't want to get blamed for making women more haughty or egotistical.
Resolution (Denouement)
Obey!
With everything wrapped up, Christine de Pizan adds one final thought to her book, instructing her female readers to obey their husbands in everything they do. This advice seems contrary to many of the things Christine has said throughout the book. But at the end of the day, she's probably scared of creating controversy in her society. So in the end, she settles for saying that women are just as morally good as men, but still obligated to obey men's power and to stay quiet and humble as wives. It's a bit of a copout, but it wasn't easy to say anything too radical back in 1405.