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)
Let's Learn about Quentin and Nancy
The beginning of the tale lays the groundwork for the rest of the story. We see that the adult Quentin, our narrator, seems at first untroubled by recalling the racial divide in his hometown. What a jerk. We also see that, when Quentin is nine, his family's black servant Nancy is afraid of her husband Jesus, who's angry that she's been impregnated by a white man. Oh, yeah—she also works as a prostitute, and the white man who impregnated her was a customer.
Nancy fears that Jesus coming to kill her, and the narrator's white family has to walk her home after dark. This is the basic info that lets the story take off.
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)
No, You Can't Have a Slumber Party
The family's mother is not happy at all about being left alone each time her husband and the kids walk Nancy home. So Nancy stays at their house one night, but ends up wailing in fear. Complication! She can't keep staying if she keeps wailing!
And the suspense and tension is mounting: Is Jesus going to kill her? Is the mother going to kick her out? The next day Nancy asks to stay in the kids' bedroom, but the mother says no way—talk about conflict and complication. So the servant brings the kids to her house.
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)
Someone's Coming! Hope It's Not Jesus…
At Nancy's house, the kids become restless and are scared that their parents are looking for them. Nancy tries to keep them entertained, but acts strangely, leaving her hands on a hot lamp light and in a fire. We're wondering if Jesus is going to come kill them all—and then someone approaches the house. This is the point of high drama in the story.
Falling Action
Gloom and Doom
It's just the children's father at the door, though. The suspense in the story begins to wind down at this point. Pops suggests Nancy stay elsewhere, but the servant is convinced that no matter where she stays, she's doomed. He tells the kids to come back home with him.
The adult Quentin, narrating the story, goes off on a tangent about a Mr. Lovelady, as if he's trying to change the subject in his mind from these uncomfortable recollections about Nancy. It feels like we're about to wrap things up.
Resolution (Denouement)
Totally Inadequate
The story ends with the white family walking back home, having abandoned Nancy. If there's going to be some resolution and here's-what-it-all-means, it's got to happen now. And it does.
The adult Quentin narrating the story ends it with two anecdotes showing how inadequate his family has been in trying to help their servant. He asked his father who will do their laundry now that Nancy has gone off her rocker, and his very young siblings argue over something pointless. The inclusion of these two items suggests the adult Quentin has realized his white family treated Nancy unfairly.