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)
Alone, imprisoned, misunderstood: that's the set-up we get when we find Campbell in an Israeli jail cell awaiting trial for war crimes during WWII. Campbell, our unreliable narrator, is writing the book you're reading right this second. Get ready for flashbacks, fast-forwards, and cycling back around again in the tale to come.
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
When is it? WWII? The late 50s or early 60s? All of the above. That is, the action builds incrementally by visiting various whens and wheres like Germany during the war, the fifteen years Campbell spent in New York City afterwards, his two-week stint in Israel, and even a quick romp through his childhood. The main event concerns Campbell's cover being blown, and the world coming after him.
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)
Campbell spends a night in hiding with his buddy, Kraft, and his lover, Resi. Then Wirtanen tells Campbell these two are both undercover Soviet agents. We've known about Kraft for a while, since Campbell mentions it every time Kraft appears in the narrative, but the hit Campbell takes at this news during the climax changes how he moves in the world.
Falling Action
Instead of escaping, Campbell goes back to confront Kraft and Resi. He then turns himself in to Israel to be tried. Everything is falling into place rather nicely, wouldn't you say?
Resolution (Denouement)
All this time, we've been thinking that the purpose of this memoir was to interrogate Campbell's innocence as well as prove it. But when Campbell gets his final—and literal—get-out-of-jail-free card, he decides to visit Death Valley instead.