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)
Tante Told Me Not To Come...
Once Tante Atie refuses that Mother's Day card from young Sophie, the game is on: we know that there's a special family situation that's going to cause some major tension and heartache. When the rumor mill in Croix-des-Rosets explodes on Tante Atie at the potluck dinner, Sophie learns that her mom—who she's never met—has sent a plane ticket for Sophie to join her in New York. This is clearly the first step in that proverbial—and in this case, totally literal—journey of a thousand miles
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
Violation
Sophie, like most teenage girls, is ready to break out and start building a life for herself, but Martine is only going to allow it on her terms. When Martine realizes that Sophie's been sneaking around with Joseph, things get real. And by that "real," we mean "real bad."
Martine begins "testing" Sophie's virginity every week, causing her daughter great humiliation. It also causes a break in their happy mama-daughter relationship, as Sophie decides to elope with Joseph to escape
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)
Going Home
When Sophie returns to Haiti for the first time since her immigration to the U.S., she's not taking a leisurely stroll down memory lane. She's conflicted and miserable. After leaving her mother's home, she hasn't had contact with Martine… and there's so much that she needs to resolve by talking with her.
The relationship with her husband—who's loving and patient—is still not going well. As she tells Ifé, she can't function in her own life. The truly climactic moment happens when Martine appears in Haiti and Sophie's able to confront her about the testing.
Falling Action
Losing Martine
Although Sophie and Martine are on the path to reconciliation, Sophie suffers a huge amount of anxiety when she realizes that her mother is slipping further into mental illness. The tension builds as she waits for her mother to make the decision to terminate her pregnancy… and then decompresses into grief when her mom stabs herself to death.
After the trauma of Marc's phone call and having to see her mother in the funeral home, Sophie uses the long flight to Haiti and the journey to the gravesite to work on those pent-up emotions.
Resolution (Denouement)
Take That, Wretched Past
The resolution here is super emotionally climactic: Sophie bolts from her mother's graveside and takes her anger out on the sugar cane field where Martine was raped. As she rips the cane from the ground, she realizes that she's been released from the fear and anxiety concerning her mother's life and her difficult beginnings. Only then can she truly respond to her Grandmè Ifé's question ("Are you free?") with any conviction.