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
New York, New York
At the beginning of the book, we're introduced to our main character, Wendy, who's just an ordinary thirteen-year-old girl living in New York City with her mom, stepfather, and half-brother. She goes to school with her best friend, adores her little brother, and fights with her parents because, well, she's going through adolescence and that's just what happens then. On this particular September day, Wendy's been fighting with her mom because she wants to visit her biological dad in California and her mom doesn't think that she should miss school for it.
As Wendy huffs and puffs out the door to school, the stage is set: She's just your average teen, heading off to school on the heels of fighting with her mother.
Rising Action
Have You Seen My Mother?
This fight quickly loses its importance when Wendy gets to school and learns some seriously disturbing news: Two planes have flown into the World Trade Center—which happens to be where her mother works. In the days that follow September 11, Wendy and her stepfather Josh spend a lot of time putting up posters and looking for her mom, but their effort's in vain. In the meantime, Wendy's little brother Louie keeps having tantrums and doesn't seem to understand that their mother is probably dead.
Climax
California Dreamin'
The turning point in the plot comes when Wendy's biological father, Garrett, shows up to see her for the first time in years. He wants to take her back to California to live with him, and because her stepfather Josh seems so overwhelmed, Wendy decides to go. She moves all the way to the little town of Davis to live with her father, and she starts to get to know him and his life.
She meets his girlfriend, Carolyn, and settles into the town. Thing is, she doesn't exactly start going to school there. Instead, Wendy spends her time in this strange new place skipping school and wandering through Davis; sometimes she even takes the bus to Sacramento.
While Wendy is technically living with a parent, it's clear she's come unmoored. Will she get herself back on solid ground, or will she continue to flounder?
Falling Action
Getting Back to Normal
Slowly, Wendy starts healing emotionally and getting back to a new kind of normal in her California home. She surrounds herself with new friends, including Carolyn, a bookstore owner named Alan, and a troubled young mother named Violet. They all celebrate Christmas together at Garrett's house, and Wendy even makes out with a runaway named Todd who she's befriended. In the meantime, though, she keeps hearing from Josh that Louie isn't doing so well; he can't accept that his mother is really dead and keeps throwing tantrums.
Resolution
The Long Road Home
Eventually, Wendy comes to realize that though it was the right thing for her to come to California, it's not her real home—Josh and Louie need her, and she tells Garrett this. He buys her a train ticket and Wendy takes the Amtrak train all the way across the country without even telling Josh and Louie first. When the story ends, Wendy has picked Louie up from school and taken him home. She's going to be there for her family at last, and she's ready to help them rebuild their lives together in New York City, no matter how hard it is.