The Hero Timeline and Summary

The hero receives a call to adventure: a great task that needs doing, a monster that needs destroying, perhaps a garden-variety plague.
She heads out with the help of a guide or mentor, who teaches the hero a few tricks and neat things she can do.
The hero crosses the first threshold, the place where the known world ends and the unknown world begins. It's usually got a guardian of some kind: somebody who's going to make life difficult but might not necessarily be a villain.
From there, it's challenge this and trial that, as the hero faces a series of tests that bring out his inner power. The hero may have some help from a passel of good buddies, but it's all to help him be the best he can be.
It ends with a final confrontation with a great evil, where the hero sees her own dark side in front of her.
Luckily, it's all in the mind, and by accepting that dark side, the hero understands how connected everybody is. It's all part of the great cosmic plan, and with that understanding, the hero gains anything and everything he ever needed.
He either stays in this final bower of absolute awesome, or returns to share the gifts with the community.
Sometimes it takes and sometimes it doesn't, but the hero has gained the ability to move between the mundane world and the unknown world, and the wisdom to do both.