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)
The gestalt Has to Start For Action To Really Start
Five lonely weirdos—Lone, Janie, the twins Bonnie and Beanie, and Baby—join together in a hidden shelter, forming the first version of the gestalt. It's like a hodgepodge Codename: Kids Next Door. Yeah, a few problems befall the characters while they're joining up, but this is all just opening exposition, because the book's main focus is the whole gestalt organism, whose troubles don't really start until it's joined together and grown up some.
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
Things Get Worse. Like, a Lot Worse
Now we're rolling. The gestalt, with Gerry as the new head, lives at Miss Kew's house, murders her, decides it doesn't need morality, and hurts Hip as he struggles to track Gerry down. Sounds like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed. This is the rising action because these complications make the super-creature increasingly vicious and a menace to ordinary humans. Like, for real. Meanwhile Hip the hero is struggling to find the gestalt. His struggle might save the day. Then we can all have ice cream.
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)
Check Out My Philosophy
Intellectual showdown. Hip and Gerry finally confront one another—but agree on the ethic Hip invents. This is the climax because the opposing forces have finally come to a solution. Can we have the ice cream now?
Falling Action
Humble Pie
No, we can't have the ice cream yet. We wait as the new ethic makes the characters humble, and Janie invites Hip to become a member of the gestalt as its conscience. We've got the falling action here because the big bang climax is over, but the characters are busy becoming humble enough for the ultimate resolution to arrive. We are busy waiting for ice cream.
Resolution (Denouement)
Homo Gestalt Society Is Awesome
Now that everyone's super-humble and Hip belongs to the group, the rest of Homo Gestalt introduce themselves to Gerry, and Gerry decides to join his gestalt up with them. This is the resolution because now the lonely super-creature has a society. And we eat our fictional ice cream. Cookie dough. Obviously.