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
Mommy Dearest
In the opening chapters of the book, we see that things are not going well in the Walsh household—not now, and pretty much not ever. Nikki, the mother, is abusive and unpredictable, and her three kids—Matthew, Callie, and Emmy—are left to fend for themselves much of the time. When Matthew and Callie see a man named Murdoch defending a kid who is being abused at a grocery store, they fall a little bit in love with this stranger.
Rising Action
Falling in Love with Murdoch
Things start to get a little better—or at least more interesting—when Nikki meets Murdoch and starts dating him. For a while, things are looking up a bit, and the kids are happy because Murdoch is great, and because having him around keeps Nikki in check. But eventually, her bad behavior starts to show through, and Murdoch dumps Nikki. At which point she really loses it. Nikki starts to put the kids in dangerous situations, and Matthew desperately tries to figure out how they can live somewhere else. Maybe they can go to stay with their father, Ben?
Climax
Things Get Crazy
Things really start to come to a head when Nikki insists on stalking Murdoch after the break-up. She reaches the apex of her revenge strategy when she convinces some dudes to go beat Murdoch up, and when that doesn't work, she has her new dude beat her up so that she can go to the police and claim that Murdoch assaulted her. So many ughs. Nikki's basically turned into a super-villain who is out to destroy the whole wide world. And she finally does hurt someone when she crashes into Julie—Murdoch's neighbor—and paralyzes her.
Because of this, Nikki has to go to jail and loses custody of the kids. It's definitely the point of no return.
Falling Action
Aftermath
Afterward, things are better, but they're not entirely and neatly resolved yet. Aunt Bobbie and Ben—Matthew and Callie's father—take on joint custody of the kids, and the living arrangement is confusing for Emmy. One day, Nikki kidnaps Emmy from her school and disappears for days with her. Matthew eventually tracks her down and almost kills her in the process, but Murdoch shows up to stop him from doing something that he will regret. After this incident, Nikki disappears and the kids never see her again. Good riddance.
Resolution
Moving On
In the end, the Walsh kids are able to move on with their lives. After Nikki disappears, they all settle into their new homes, where they finally feel safe and loved. Two years later, Callie is still living with Ben and excelling academically, whereas Matthew lives with Aunt Bobbie and Emmy and is getting ready to go to college in the fall.
At the very end, Matthew gets some closure when he talks to Murdoch, who admits that he was once an abused child and that he killed his own father to get away. He didn't want Matthew to have to go through the same thing, and just wants him to go on with his life and follow his dreams.