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)
Jumping Ship
A black guy named Son jumps off a ship and eventually ends up hiding in the house of a rich white candy-maker named Valerian Street. We like to think of Valerian Street as a warped Willy Wonka figure. When Son is caught, Valerian Street invites him to stay in his house as a guest.
Street's prim and proper black servants, Ondine and Sydney, are deeply offended by Son's presence. They're doubly offended by the fact that Valerian Street has never treated them with half the respect that he shows to Son. Son is a criminal and he gets to sleep in the guest room and eat with Valerian, whereas Ondine and Sydney stay in servants quarters and usually eat in the kitchen. That's just messed up.
Ondine and Syndey's beautiful niece Jade seems to be okay with Son, because he's a hottie. Meanwhile, Valerian's wife Margaret is working to prepare for their son's Christmas visit. The son's name is Michael, and it seems doubtful that he'll actually show up.
Phew! That was more introductions than freshman orientation week.
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
Love and Secrets
After a romantic trip to the beach, Son and Jade start to get closer to one another. We hear over and over again just how beautiful they both are, which prompts the question: When is the Tar Baby movie coming out, and who will play Son and Jade?
But while their love is blossoming, things back at the Street household are getting sour and freaky. Sydney and Ondine are furious with Valerian for being so inconsiderate all the time, and Valerian is annoyed with Margaret for always trying to smother their son Michael (with love, not a pillow or something).
Things come to a head at Christmas dinner. Michael hasn't shown up on the island, and when Valerian casually says that he fired a few local employees, Sydney and Ondine yell at him for being so hard-hearted.
During the ensuing fight, Ondine reveals that Margaret used to stick pins in her son when he was just a little baby. Um, what? That is so messed up. Valerian is crushed by this news. Jade and Son run away from the unpleasant fight and meet one another in New York a week later.
They spend about ten months together. They're happy at first, but slowly tensions build between them because they have different ideas about what it means to be a successful black person in modern America.
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)
Breakup Time
Son takes Jade to the all-black Florida town of Eloe. Son loves Eloe, but Jade thinks it's MiddleofNowhere'sVille, USA. She wants the bright lights of the big city. In a fit of anger, Son rapes Jade while telling her the original story of Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby. Yep. You heard that right.
When it's over, he leaves. Hours later, he comes back in shame to find Jade packed and gone: surprise, surprise. He figures that she has gone back to Valerian's Caribbean island and decides to follow her there. Son actually thinks he's actually going to get her back after what he's done. Pfft.
Falling Action
Not-So-Fun in the Island Sun
Jade returns to Valerian's island, but she's only there to pick up an expensive sealskin coat and to say goodbye to her aunt and uncle. While she's there, though, her aunt Ondine scolds her for forgetting where she came from and for neglecting her relatives. Ondine basically says "Take care of us in our old age or you'll never be a real, honest woman."
Jade says she never wants to be an "honest" woman like Ondine if a life of servitude is all it gets her. She goes to the airport and flies away to France, leaving Ondine and Sydney to shake their heads and to regret all the sacrifices they've made for her.
Resolution (Denouement)
Lickety-Split into the Mist
Right after Jade leaves, Son shows up in the nearby town of Queen of France (cool name, right?) and looks around for Jade. He hitches a boat ride out to Valerian's island with a blind old woman named Thérèse, who drops him on the wrong side of the island. Thérèse needs to get back before the tide goes out, so Son is left all alone.
The novel ends with Son crawling through the mist, not knowing if he'll ever see Jade again. Neat and tidy resolution? Not so much. Morrison is more interested in making you uneasy than in making you feel like everything is right in the world, which is why she rocks.