Plot

"What happened?"
Subtle thoughts and/or violent crisis can help a reader discover the plot. The plot structure usually consists of a the placement of an exposition that introduces the characters, time/place, and their "situation."
This exposition can reveal a conflict and works to set the rising action into motion.
There may be a discriminating occasion, an occurrence that expresses a distinct "rising action" of one incident or a series of intensifying incidents thereof.
The climax of this action converges on a decisive action, realization, or moment.
Often, a falling action and conclusion support the situation and stabilize a conflict or replace it with a new, stable situation.
As a reader, I may construct expectations and/or predictions about how things might develop in the story and ask questions like "how will this end?" or "what's gonna happen next?" Suspense is created and the plot structure causes a response from the reader.A writer can construct a story in a chronological pattern, or alter the order of events to engage the reader and keep the reader enmeshed in what's to come. A plot should never be a straight forward review of all that has happened, rather an improbable outcome that could be a derivation from what the reader expects.
"The Country Husband" by John Cheever
"Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin
Ah, "Sonny's Blues!" "It, it it, it....." Repetition completely contributed to my interest in what had happened....what was "it?" "It" causes the narrator to become agitated and upset...so I was, too. I felt that when "it" happened, that was the conclusion. Then, the story wove a series of events, often jumping from one time frame into another, often backwards in time. I was captivated by how the teacher, Sonny's older brother, had known his brother would always be a drug addict and that he somehow put those realizations far back in his head where he didn't have to deal with the daily thoughts of wondering where his brother was and was his brother safe? Also, how everyone around Sonny seemed to blame themselves, in part, for Sonny's addiction. The fact is, it's not about them. It's about Sonny's pain and his desire to avoid strife. Sonny thinks everyone avoids their pain in some fashion...and his choice was "horse." The older brother thought Sonny just wanted to die, but Sonny actually felt more alive and connected to life when he was high. That's hard for a clean person to swallow. A drug addict simply loves the drug, the high, the altered sense of reality when under the influence of the drug...unaware of the ravages on the body and spiritual torment it lays down as a foundation.
I LOVED "And when light fills the room, the child is filled with darkness." Like, a child is pure, not knowing of the world's pain...and the adults are in the darkness...the pain. As if the darkness moves closer to the children as they age and become more worldly. So sad...
The realization of the older brother that his father had suffered, and that his father cried quite privately...and that he wasn't the strong, brutish man he so outwardly expressed, rather a broken spirit....filled with pain from a loss suffered early in his life.
But, the most wonderful part of the story was the experience the older brother had when he got to see his brother perform, way before "it" happened. The club scene was described so beautifully....so dark...so much pain...people playing into each other and opening themselves up for others to see. "The Blues", maybe not what they used to be, but certainly alive and well in society. The music stirred memories of death, beauty, the "burning" lament within us all...each capable of sharing.
"trouble stretched above us, longer than the sky"....a foreboding of something negative coming.
Perhaps the older brother realizes that Sonny had his own truth, his own reality...and Sonny liked it that way even if he didn't realize how much he hurt the people who loved him. Sonny had a new "family"...drug-induced musicians intent on expressing their pain in and from the world...that they were somehow more attached to the world because they were so attached to their pain. Like they were better for their suffering. Sonny made his choices, the older brother chose to be an educator...to offer hope and support to the future generations he taught. No foul on any one's part, just an extreme separation of lifestyle....one above the law, one below.