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.
Since this is a collection of short stories, we're going to analyze the plot of just one story. Check out this analysis of "Benito Cereno" below.
Exposition (Initial Situation)
What Strange Ship Is This?
Captain Delano comes onboard the ship San Dominick. He notices that the ship is in distress, the black slaves onboard seem to be uncontrolled, and the captain, Benito Cereno, is unwell. There's a mystery set up; what's going on here? Delano is the detective—albeit a not very bright one. He's sort of the anti-Sherlock Holmes, with a pipe in his ear and a hat in his mouth.
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
Is the Ship Strange? Yes? No? Maybe? No? Yes? Help?
Most of the novella is taken up not so much with rising action as with vacillating, back and forth, going nowhere action. Delano thinks something is horribly wrong, then he thinks there isn't, then he thinks there is. Repeat, over and over. Until the suspense is unbearable or your head feels wobbly, whichever comes first.
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)
Bye Bye, Strange Ship
The turning point in the novel comes when Don Benito jumps ship. It takes a moment for Delano to figure out what's going on, but this is the instant when Babo loses control of the situation. That means you (and Delano) discover that the entire previous action in the novella is an act, or a lie. It also means that Babo and the slaves are doomed.
Falling Action
Happy Death. Or Maybe Not So Happy.
The falling action consists of the Americans murdering and kidnapping the black people on the ship. It's supposed to be a happy resolution—though if you sympathize with enslaved people at all, it doesn't look so great.
Resolution (Denouement)
Rewind That
The (long) resolution here consists of the depositions by Don Benito and the doctor, in which they retell the voyage now that they can tell you that it involved a slave mutiny. The denoument, then, basically rewinds the whole story, so you can go back and understand it in light of the new revelations. It's like reading the same narrative twice—but without a blindfold the second time.