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
Someday Forensic Science Will Solve This Problem
How do you identify a body in 1871 when it's in pieces, there's no face, and it's been exposed to the elements for a week? Very carefully, using scraps of clothing and hair as absolute proof. Georgie's sister disappears, and a body turns up wearing her dress. Georgie doesn't believe it's Agatha, but everyone else does, and just like that, we've got ourselves a conflict in need of a resolution.
Rising Action
Because Tracking Down Whoever Killed Your Sister Seems Totally Safe
Georgie and Billy, Agatha's ex-boyfriend, set off together for Dog Hollow, the last place Agatha was seen. Georgie's out to prove Agatha is alive, and Billy's along for reasons of his own. Following a lead, the two of them end up at the Garrow farm, where they discover that another young woman matching Agatha's description, Darlene Garrow, is also missing. They also discover that Mr. Garrow is a counterfeiter, and though they run faster than a pigeon flies once they do, Mr. Garrow and another member of his gang come after them.
Climax
Shootout at High Noon
Mr. Garrow and Bowler Hat catch up with them, and Georgie, completely convinced now that they killed her sister, gets into a shootout with the men as they beat Billy nearly to death. This is the big exciting action scene. But wait, there's more. After they escape, the dying Billy has a confession: He used Georgie to break Agatha and Mr. Olmstead up. So now we've got a big action scene and a revelation that affects Georgie's emotional journey toward accepting her sister's death.
Falling Action
Time for More Funerals
Mr. Olmstead finds Georgie and Billy on the road and takes them back to Dog Hollow, where he finds Billy a doctor and tells Georgie that Grandfather Bolte has died. Back in Placid, Georgie's Ma is super glad to see her, since she's been afraid of losing Georgie, too. The pace of the story slows now, as Georgie finds her way back into everyday life in Placid, having accepted her sister's death.
Resolution
Everything You Think You Know is Wrong
Guess what? Agatha's not dead after all. When the Garrow Gang is captured, Georgie gets her fifteen minutes of fame for her little shootout with them, allowing Agatha to find out what's been going on. They get a letter from Agatha, whose overall tone is, "What the heck?" This resolves what happened to Agatha, but, um… whose body is in her grave?
Later that summer, Mrs. Garrow arrives to tell them that the body belongs to her daughter, Darlene. Darlene died in an accident, and her father dumped the body to avoid telling his wife about it. So now we know where everyone is and who everyone is. Georgie has decided not to hunt anymore but to value life as Agatha does, completing her emotional journey toward maturity.