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
Life Behind the Walls
The Cranston mice have a pretty comfortable life in America—they have a sweet crib in the walls of their humans, the Upstairs Cranstons, and they collect the humans' scraps all day. For Helena, Beatrice, Louise, and Lamont, life is pretty great. There is one downer, though: they hate water because their mom and two older sister mice drowned back in the day.
Rising Action
Get Ready for a Voyage
When the Upstairs Cranstons decide to travel to England, the Cranston mice take a gigantic leap of faith—they leave their comfy home in America and hop on board a huge ship heading across the Atlantic Ocean. On board, there's a ship cat to flee from and some serious husband-hunting drama when it comes to the Upstairs Cranstons.
Climax
Meddling Mice Make the World Go Round
At Princess Louise's party, the Cranston mice work hard to help Camilla meet Lord Peter. And thanks to Louise (the mouse), romance blossoms between Camilla and Lord Peter. After the party, Helena helps Lord Sandown avoid a big spanking. All in all the mice are starting to feel pretty good about this journey they're taking—in fact, they go from scared to seriously happy. And that, Shmoopsters, is what we like to call a turning point.
Falling Action
Getting Ready to Get Hitched
As the mice and humans get closer and closer to shore, their drama starts wrapping up. The human couples pair off: Camilla with Lord Peter, Olive with the doctor. And the mice couples have plans of their own, since Beatrice is going to marry hunky Nigel. The end of the trip and the end of the romance drama lets us know that this story is coming to a close.
Resolution
It's a Whole New Life
In England, Helena is loving life as assistant mouse-in-waiting to Princess Louise—plus she gets to live in a totally awesome palace and host her sister Beatrice's wedding. We don't see the humans get married, but instead we get a nice tidy conclusion with the mice, which clues us into the fact that we've reached the end of the tale. All the same, Helena leaves things a bit open-ended for us. Do you think she'll end up with Lord Peter? We sure do.