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
Taliban Should be a Four-Letter Word
Welcome to Afghanistan under Taliban rule, a country where women's freedoms have been stripped away and people live in extreme poverty. But Parvana—our main character—is happy, helping her weak Father back and forth to the market where he tries to earn a buck by reading people's letters for them (most folks are illiterate around here).
Sure, Parvana's family of five lives in a teeny tiny apartment (we're talking about one small room), and Parvana's big sister couldn't be more annoying if she tried, but it's all good. They are making the best of their life together, and though things are pretty bad outside—especially since the Taliban recently shut down the girls' schools—Parvana's family has a lot of love between them.
Rising Action
Remember Mulan?
And here come the bad guys. The Talibs break into Parvana's family's apartment and kidnap Father, taking him prisoner. Mother falls into a deep depression, and the family runs way low on food and water. Time to send for reinforcements.
While buying some bread in the marketplace for her family, Parvana runs into Mrs. Weera (literally). She brings Mrs. Weera—a friend of Mother's—back to the apartment, where Mrs. W helps bring things to order.
A plan is hatched for how the family will survive: Parvana will wear her dead brother's clothes to work in the marketplace as Kaseem. This will make the family some money and, disguised as a boy, Parvana should be as safe as possible out and about on her own. Though Parvana is none too keen on this idea, she eventually concedes—she's really the only person who can do it, after all, and the alternative is pretty much that her family starves.
She likes her time in the market more than she'd expected, especially after she hooks up with her friend Shauzia from school, who is also disguised as a boy to support her family. But reality of the Taliban's violence hits home before long though, when the girls see soldiers chop off prisoners' hands for sport (it even takes place in a stadium). And though Parvana responds by taking a little break from the harsh realities of the outside world and hunkers down at home for a bit, we know that the Taliban's violent practices can still show up at any moment.
Climax
The Taliban Strike Again
Parvana's whole life changes when Nooria decides to get married and move to Mazar. Mother and the kids will go for a few months to get her settled, but Parvana will stay behind in case Father comes home. You never know, right? But life is depressing.
While ducking out of the rain in an abandoned building one day, Parvana finds a women running from the Taliban. Pretending she is Malali, she finds the courage to rescue her and take her (Homa) to their apartment. Here, though, Homa tells Parvana and Mrs. Weera that when she left Mazar, the Taliban had taken over the area and were killing people (including Homa's whole family). Instead of escaping life under Taliban rule, Mother and Nooria and the little kids have actually walked right into it. Yikes. Parvana is terrified.
Fortunately Father returns soon, which is good, since clearly something has to be done to try to save the rest of the family.
Falling Action
Father's Got A Plan
Mrs. Weera and Parvana nurse Father back to health, and Parvana feels re-energized now that he is back; she works hard to pay for his medicine and help him get well. When she's not working, they all hang out in the apartment, reading his books and listening to Homa and Father speak English with each other. They even start to laugh again.
The word on the street is that most people in Mazar have fled the city and are living in refugee camps. This is all Father needs to hear, and he decides to pack up and head to Pakistan with Parvana to find his family.
Resolution
Road Trip
Everyone makes plans to leave Afghanistan and head to Pakistan. Mrs. Weera and Homa will work in women's refugee camps; Shauzia will head in the same direction but travel with nomads instead. She and Parvana agree to meet in front of the Eiffel Tower twenty years later, so their friendship ends on a happy note.
As Parvana and Father leave Afghanistan in the back of the truck, she wonders what the next twenty years will be like and despite all the uncertainty ahead of her—will they find her family?—she feels hopeful as she watches Mount Parvana in the distance.