What is the exposition, conflict, climax and resolution of the novel in In the Time of the Butterflies?

This novel has a unique structure in that the first chapter is
told in the present day from the voice of Dede, the only surviving Maribel sister who reflects
back on the past and on her sisters' lives. We learn from the very start that they all have died
and that she has lived on to tell their story. This portion of the story is part of the
exposition. The exposition establishes the background of the story and the initial conflicts. The
next section of the novel establishes the specific exposition of each of the other sisters:
Patria who marries and has children; Minerva who goes to school, learns the truth about the
dictator, Trujillo's regime and reign of terror, and eventually joins the revolutionary movement
against him; and Maria Terese, the youngest, who also joins the revolution with her sister.

The primary conflict of the novel is how the sisters all join
together to be a part of the revolution against Trujillo. The novel gives each of the sisters a
voice to tell their own story, so we learn in first person narration what each of them is
motivated by and how they each see their role in the revolution. Each of the women and their
spouses end up risking their lives and freedom for the cause. Only Dede stays away from the
operation. At one point, all three of the other sisters and their respective spouses are
imprisoned by Trujillo, but they are eventually released.

We are
forewarned of the resolution of the novel at the very start of the story. We know that the three
revolutionary sisters are all assassinated by Trujillo's men. What is important about the end of
the novel though is that even though they died, they died as martyrs to the cause and served as
inspiration for others to carry on their work in the eventual overthrow of the terrible dictator.
They were called the "mariposa" or "butterflies" as a code name, but it serves as a fitting
symbol -- they were transformed from young women, into revolutionaries, into martyrs, but it is
Dede's responsibility to continue to tell their story.