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
Home Is Where the Heart Is
We first meet Lakshmi on a swallow-tailed-looking peak on a mountain in Nepal. Because she's so poor, she's jealous of what others have—but life isn't too bad because she has a mom who loves her, a baby brother, and a pretty cute goat. Her stepfather though, well, he's a piece of work. This all sets us up nicely for the rising action.
Rising Action
Poor (Literally) Lakshmi
Because of the monsoon, and because the stepfather is a lazy good-for-nothing, Lakshmi's family finds themselves in dire straits. So the stepfather tells Lakshmi she will go to work in the city.
Not the Paradise She Expected
Lakshmi leaves her mountaintop village and travels with Auntie Bimla and Uncle Husband to a city, where she sees both modernity and poverty and filth. Also, she's sold into prostitution, which she doesn't expect at all—though readers sort of do.
Climax
Realization
There are two climaxes in the story, and the first is when Lakshmi realizes what has happened to her and why Happiness House is ironically named.
Rising Action—Take Two
A New Home
After Lakshmi's initiation into her life in the brothel, she must learn how to live in Happiness House. A lot of this conflict is internal—how Lakshmi finds tiny bits of happiness despite her horrible situation, how she can make friends even in the worst of circumstances, and how she copes with repeated rapes.
… But Not for Long (We Hope)
Even though she has adjusted to her new life, Lakshmi hasn't given up hope of escape. She makes plans to pay off her debt (smart girl), and in doing this, has to keep secrets from Mumtaz and the other girls. These secrets become particularly dangerous when Lakshmi decides to rely on the third American to help her become free.
Climax—Take Two
Taking Back What's Hers
The second climax doesn't occur until the very end of the book, when Lakshmi finally leaves Happiness House. But we get the sense that her story isn't done.
Falling Action and Resolution
Wait, Where Are These?
These pieces in the classic plot analysis are missing for a reason. The book ends deliberately with the most powerful scene of Lakshmi's story. The question McCormick wants readers to ask, then, is why she chose to do this. We're left wondering what Lakshmi's future holds for her, and we remember that this book isn't just fiction—it is filled with elements of truth. With that in mind, in the real world there's no easy resolution for girls who escape brothels, no matter where they're located.