Boy1 must save her or lose her permanently. As he begins to devise his solutions to the problem, we have falling action where we can see the possibilities for resolution. And this d nouement must be satisfying for the reader, or we are disappointed, rightly so. We've all read the story. Don't confuse theme with plot.
All roads lead to theme, eventually.
Both time and place in a story. A writer will give the reader detailed descriptions, suggestions, hints, etc. that will create his setting. Setting can be so important it behaves almost like a character in the story. Authors use many techniques to characterize. Like setting, note the costuming, dialects, occupations, internalizations, thought processes, the ways characters respond to one another, etc.