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
A Very Unhappy Birthday to You
When the book opens, we're presented with Clara Wintermute's birthday party—an exciting affair where the puppeteer Grisini will be performing. We learn about Clara's family, which is plagued by death; all of her other siblings died of cholera. And, we also learn about a witch named Cassandra who is being slowly burned to death by something called the phoenix-stone. She needs to speak to this Grisini character pronto in order to learn how to stop the stone. When Clara humiliates herself during her party, her mother gets upset with her. The next day, though, her parents find to their horror that Clara is missing. With that, their only child is gone.
Rising Action
The Puppet Master
Grisini is questioned by the police about Clara's disappearance. His two apprentices—orphan children named Lizzie Rose and Parsefall—are suspicious of his involvement when they learn that he's been questioned before about kids who have disappeared. It turns out that Grisini is trying to get a ransom out of the Wintermutes, but before he can go collect it, he gets called to Strachan's Ghyll (Cassandra's house) via magic. Afterward, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall find a puppet in Grisini's belongings that looks exactly like Clara … because it is Clara. Somehow, Grisini has turned her into a lifeless puppet.
Climax
The Great Journey
Things really heat up when the children go to Strachan's Ghyll because Cassandra has written them a letter promising an inheritance to them. It's a ploy, though, and what she really wants is for one of the kids to take the phoenix-stone off her hands. When they get there, she acts super nice and tries to entice them into stealing the stone, but they're hesitant. Then, Grisini shows up and demands that Parsefall steal the stone, prompting the kids to decide to leave Strachan's Ghyll. Cassandra keeps bringing them back, though—she won't let them leave until one of them steals the darn phoenix-stone and frees her from its curse.
With the kids trapped, we've officially hit the point of no return in this book.
Falling Action
Through the Ice
In order to save Parsefall from stealing the stone (after he decides he's going to use its power to hurt Grisini), Clara turns back into a regular girl and takes it. Grisini chases after her as she runs off, but he ends up falling through the ice when she runs onto the lake. The frozen lake cracks and destroys the stone, and soon afterward, Cassandra's Tower Room crumbles to the ground, signifying the fall of her power. Grisini is dead, and the children rejoice after they pull Clara out of the lake, safe and sound and once again a normal-size girl.
Have you ever seen falling action that involves so much actual falling? Yeah, us neither.
Resolution
A Family Reunited
At the end, Clara is reunited with her parents, who shower her with love and agree to adopt both Lizzie Rose and Parsefall as their new children. Cassandra is very ill and on her deathbed, but before she dies, she bequeaths all of her belongings to the children, so they are now rich. The book ends with the whole family at Cassandra's funeral, excited to return to London so they can get their new family life going.