How would one summarize Shakespeare's Twelfth Night?

When summarizing a piece of
literature, such as a story or a play, it's important to first know how to
pick out the important details. When it comes to stories, we can actually
use what we know of typical plot structure to help us
notice what is important. A typical plot structure includes five
elements: the exposition in which characters
are introduced; the rising action, which involves all
actions that develop the conflict and lead up to the climax; the
climax, which is the most intense moment of the conflict;
the falling action, which involves all actions that lead up
to the resolution; and finally the resolution, which is the
ending to the story. If we keep these elements in mind and know how to pick them out,
then we know how to pick out what is most important and can
quickly summarize the story.

The
exposition takes place in mostly the first act with a
little still developed in the second act. In these two acts, we meet all
of the principle characters, including but not limited to Duke Orsino,
Viola, Olivia, and Sebastian. In addition, we are introduced to the play's
conflicts. We learn of the first conflict in
the very first scene, which is that Orsino is obsessively pining for
Olivia who has rejected him, not wanting any company since her brother's
death. We are introduced to the second conflict in the
second scene and learn more about it in the fifth, which is that
Viola feels the need to disguise herself as a
manservant, allowing the opportunity for Olivia to fall in
love with Viola as the manservant Cesario while Viola has
fallen in love with Orsino. Any scenes developing these conflicts also
serve as the rising action, such as the moment when Malvolio hunts down Cesario to
return a ring Olivia says the servant left with her, allowing for Viola to realize that
Olivia has fallen in love with her as Cesario.

The
climax starts in Act 4, Scene 1, the moment that
Olivia mistakes Sebastian for Cesario. This serves as the
climactic moment because, from that point on, Viola's true identity will inevitably be
revealed. The climax continues in the fifth act when Sebastian and Viola
see each other, exposing Viola's real identity and revealing that Olivia
has married Sebastian rather than Cesario. This final scene also serves to develop the
play's resolution, which is Olivia's marriage
to Sebastian as well as Orsino's proposal to
Viola. Now that Viola has been exposed as truly being a noblewoman,
Orsino, having fallen in love with her as Cesario, decides to ask Viola to be his wife,
as we see in his lines:

readability="11">

Your master quits you; and, for your service
done him,
So much against the mettle of your sex,
...
And
since you call'd me master for so long,
Here is my hand: you shall from this
time be
Your master's mistress.
(V.i.327-34)

Hence, we see we
can easily summarize the story by first taking note of the important events through
examining the plot structure.