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): Heaven on Earth
The Circle's exposition gets underway as Mae Holland finds herself with a brand-spanking-new job at the Circle—the world's hottest tech company, and, in her mind, the corporeal (and corporate) representation of all that is pure and good. As Mae adjusts to life at the Circle, we readers learn all about her family life, her hopes and dreams, and the brief but impressive history of the Circle itself.
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication): Social Feeds, Social Needs
Mae's adjustment to life at the Circle doesn't always go as smoothly and painlessly as she'd like. The company expects her to devote most—if not all—of her free time to attending various events and activities on campus, and to participating in the never-ending stream of posts, comments, "smiles," "frowns," and "zings" that keep its social media flowing. Whenever Mae fails to measure up—whether because she's been devoting time to her parents or taking some time out for herself—she gets a serious scolding from her supervisors. Participation in the Circle's social events and activities may be optional, but "optional" means pretty much the same thing as "mandatory," right?
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point): Transparent Mae
The Circle has three distinctive climaxes.
The first occurs at the end of Book I, when Mae gives herself over to the Circle completely and agrees to "go transparent"—that is, to wear a video camera at all times and allow her daily life to be recorded and viewed by millions.
The second and third climaxes occur toward the end of Book II, when Mae makes two disastrous decisions without actually realizing—like, not even a little—how disastrous they really are.
First, by siccing a global community of Circlers on her ex-boyfriend Mercer Medeiros as a way of demonstrating the power of the Circle's newest search tools, Mae pushes Mercer into a very public suicide.
Next, after Mae's mysterious lover Kalden reveals himself to be Ty Gospodinov—one of the Circle's Three Wise Men and the creator of the Circle's first technologies—Mae rejects Ty's plea for assistance. Rather than helping him to dismantle the Circle and prevent a totalitarian force from coming into being, Mae exposes Ty and ensures that the Circle will never be destroyed.
Falling Action: Dodging the Bullet
As The Circle draws to a close, Mae has mixed feelings about the role that she played in exposing Ty Gospodinov's plan to dismantle the Circle. On the one hand, she's proud of herself for sticking to her guns and proving her loyalty to the company; on the other hand, it still rattles her to think how close they all came to "apocalypse" (3.1.1). In her view, nothing could be worse than the destruction of the Circle.
Resolution (Denouement): To Infinity...and Beyond
As The Circle wraps up, Mae sits at the bedside of her best friend Annie Allerton, who is lying in a coma after having been physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted by the Circle's demands on her life. As she watches her friend, the thought that makes Mae most frustrated is that she has no way of knowing what thoughts and dreams are passing through Annie's mind as she sleeps.
Mae decides to bring this up to the Circle's biggest players the next chance she gets. How hard can it be to develop the tools that will let us know what another person is thinking? She deserves to have access to Annie's brain, she tells herself. The world deserves that kind of access, and it shouldn't have to wait.