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.
Initial Situation
Writer's Block
We start off in the writer's brain: "Everything in the world began with a yes." Yeah, not very promising, at least not if you're in the mood for a good tale of adventure and derring-do. The narrator tells us that he's got this story to tell about a girl he knew, but he don't seem to know how to get started. (Here's a hint: maybe don't wait until the middle of the book to tell us the girl's name?)
Conflict
Ignorance is Not Exactly Bliss
Macabéa: how do we not love thee? Let's count the ways. She's poor, undernourished, unattractive, inexperienced, and crushingly ignorant. She lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, struggling to survive in a miserable life. This is not a heroine to get excited about … and that seems to be the conflict. How do you write a book about someone to whom nothing has ever happened except misery?
This plot doesn't really fit into a neat box, but we get the sense that the conflict is really all in the narrator—and maybe it's supposed to be in us, as well. In trying to understand how the world could let people like Macabéa exist, and the narrator is figuring out his own role (and ours) in creating the poor, invisible underclass that Macabéa belongs to.
Complication
Olímpico + Glória 4EVA
Hey, something good happens to Macabéa!
Oh. Never mind. She has a boyfriend (Olímpico) for like, five minutes, but he's a total jerk—and then he leaves her for her sexy co-worker, Glória.
Climax
Tall, Dark Stranger
Macabéa pays a visit to a fortuneteller, Madame Carlota. Madame Carlota blows Macabéa's mind by, in quick succession, telling her that (1) her life is horrible, and (2) everything is about to change for the better. In an instant, Macabéa goes from being depressed and pessimistic to hopeful and eager. Things are looking up.
Suspense
Change is Coming
Macabéa leaves Madame Carlota's home full of optimism about her future. We're kind of biting our nails to see what comes next. Is she really going to get back together with Olímpico? Will she start that new job at the metal factory? Will the new boyfriend really be as cute as Madame Carlota says?
Denouement
The Wheel(s) of Fortune
Awesome. Macabéa is run over by a big yellow Mercedes and dies by a gutter. Alone. In the rain.
Conclusion
At Least the Narrator Learned Something
Okay, this is super sad. On the plus side, the narrator suggests that death is the only way of arriving at our true selves, so Macabéa's death is more like an achievement than a tragedy.
Great. Maybe she'll even get a certificate of participation.