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)
Guilty Until Proven Innocent?
Local fisherman Kabuo Miyamoto is on trial for allegedly killing fellow fish-catcher Carl Heine, Jr. The book opens on Day 1 of the trial, with the prosecution making its case. We hear lots of evidence against Kabuo, some of which seems pretty convincing, but we also get the sense that there's a lot of prejudice against Japanese Americans that's figuring into the mix.
A reporter named Ishmael Chambers is reporting on the trial, and it appears that he has a history with the defendant's wife. Through flashbacks, we learn more about their romance as teens and their ultimate separation when WWII broke out (flashbacks take us through the details that people are testifying about, too).
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
Can You Be Judged "Way Guilty"?
On Day 2 of the trial, the court hears from Sterling Whitman, a hematologist; Susan Heine, Carl Jr.'s wife; and Sergeant Victor Maples, who trained Kabuo in hand-to-hand combat. Let's just say their testimony doesn't do Kabuo any favors (of course, it's not supposed to—they're witnesses for the prosecution). Things are getting pretty dicey for the defendant...
The prosecution rests and, because there's an island-wide power outage due to a snowstorm, the judge decides to adjourn until the next day. Having spent a good portion of the trial thinking about Hatsue and the war (to the point where you wonder how he's going to know enough about the trial to report on it), Ishmael gets some supplies together and heads out on some errands, including a visit to the local coast guard office to get information about past storms that he can use for a piece on the current one.
He also plans to check in at his mom's house to make sure she's faring okay in the storm. On the way, he sees Hatsue and her dad stranded by the side of the road and ends up giving them a ride home.
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)
Wait... This Isn't Even A Murder Mystery?
When Ishmael gets to the coast guard office, he suddenly realizes (while once again thinking about Hatsue) that there might be something in their records that is relevant to the Miyamoto trial.
Sure enough, he finds evidence that a freighter went through the fishing area on the night of Carl Heine's death, right around the time Carl went into the water. Ishmael realizes that the waves coming from the boat could have easily caused Heine's boat to rock enough to knock him overboard.
He pockets the relevant records and heads out to his mother's. As the day ends, however, we learn that he has no intention of handing the records over to the court just yet. Instead, he seems to be planning to sit on it, maybe see how the trial goes and curry favor with Hatsue by writing an article that highlights how unfair the proceedings have been to her husband.
So, yeah, this section of the book is a turning point in terms of the trial (because we are now really certain that a murder didn't occur at all), but it's also revolutionary in terms of how we view our protagonist. Withholding the evidence is, to put it mildly, a pretty big moral booboo.
Falling Action
Racism and Xenophobia Will Out
The next day, the defense makes its case and presents enough information to create reasonable doubt that Kabuo Miyamoto is guilty. Of course, we already know he's probably not guilty thanks to Ishmael's sleuthing, so it's not hugely exciting for the readers in that sense—we're just waiting for the whole thing to unravel when Ishmael finally gives in the evidence.
The lawyers present their closing arguments, and the judge reminds the jury that they have to be absolutely sure Kabuo is guilty of murder beyond a reasonable doubt and absolutely sure that the murder was premeditated.
Even though it seems pretty evident that there is reasonable doubt based on the testimony, all but one juror wants to convict Miyamoto. However, that one juror is holding tight, convinced that he hasn't seen enough evidence to convict.
Meanwhile, that evening Ishmael hangs out again at his mom's house, continuing to go down memory lane. After a trip out to the hollowed out cedar tree where he and Hatsue used to meet in secret when they were teenagers, Ishmael decides to give up carrying a torch for Hatsue and goes to her parents' house immediately. He hands over the evidence that suggests no murder was committed at all.
Resolution (Denouement)
A Murder Most… Non-Existent
In the morning, in an effort to bolster their case for getting the charges against Kabuo dropped, Hatsue and Ishmael head out to Art Moran and ask him to check Carl's boat for a lantern lashed to the mast (which Kabuo mentioned in his account of his interactions with Carl on the night Carl died). They show him the records from the coast guard office to support their case for searching for additional evidence that might exonerate Kabuo.
When they search the boat, they don't find the lantern, but they do find evidence that there was a lantern (and some blood, too, which corroborates Kabuo's assertion that Carl had a cut on his hand). Before the morning is out, the jury has been dismissed, and the charges against Kabuo have been dropped. Ishmael returns to his office to write up the story. And that's a wrap.