Christopher Booker is a scholar who wrote that every story falls into one of seven basic plot structures: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, the Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. Shmoop explores which of these structures fits this story like Cinderella’s slipper.
Plot Type : The Quest
The Call
Roland Mitchell is Possession's modern chivalric knight, and he finds himself called to his "quest" by an unexpected source. While doing some mid-morning research in the London Library, Roland discovers two drafts of a letter to an unnamed woman written by the nineteenth-century poet Randolph Henry Ash. With those letters—now stolen property—in hand, Roland sets off on a journey that will change his life.
The Journey
Roland is soon joined on his quest by another modern knight who shares his interests: the "redoubtable" (3.55) Maud Bailey, who's made a name for herself as one of the world's leading scholars of the works of Christabel LaMotte. As the two literature lovers discover a secret love affair between Ash and LaMotte and trace the nineteenth-century poets' journeys, step by step, they start to feel a little something in their own hearts, too.
Arrival and Frustration
Eventually, Roland and Maud reach the end of the line—or at least the end of the line for now. After learning that Christabel LaMotte and Randolph Henry Ash conceived a child together, they realize that they have no way of figuring out what happened to the little one. The historical record has run dry…or so they think.
Not only that, but their private "quest" has suddenly become a very public affair. Their colleagues have caught on to their discoveries, and journalists and lawyers are getting involved. Suddenly, their secret quest has become a hot, soupy mess.
The Final Ordeals
Fortunately for Roland and Maud—and for Possession's plot—the novel's other characters have turned up some valuable clues of their own. Unfortunately for Roland and Maud, the man with the most promising lead is the deliciously corrupt Mortimer Cropper, a guy who isn't known for his willingness to share.
Our intrepid knights' final ordeal takes place in a rural English graveyard on a truly dark and stormy night. There, they and their allies thwart Mortimer Cropper's plan to steal a box of secret documents from Randolph Henry Ash's grave.
The Goal
Roland and Maud's quest comes to an end when they set eyes on the contents of the previously buried box. Inside it is a letter from Christabel LaMotte to Randolph Henry Ash, and within that letter Christabel reveals the whereabouts of their child. As it turns out, Maud's great-great-grandmother Maia Thomasine Bailey was actually the daughterof our novel's star-crossed, nineteenth-century lovers. Who saw that one coming?