First published in 1970, this work examines 'Plot' as a literary term. It traces the two and contrary ways of considering the word: the Aristotelian and the neo-classic interpretations. It then goes on to examine the methods by which the idea of plot has been expanded in modern criticism through a proliferation of critical terms clustering around a vital idea of poiesis , and through the development of time theories, both literary and philosophical, which describe the action of creation. In doing so, the book leads the reader from the standard definition of plot as a hackneyed mechanical term to its enormous possibilities as both a definition and an action.