The same thing is sometimes called the struggle or the conflict. In modern works, the conflict, contest, or struggle, is likely to involve the natural world or aspects of main character's personality. It is the contest, the conflict, the struggle of the plot. If that sentence contain a being verb or a verb in the passive voice, the odds are good that you are not expressing the conflict of your plot, but are stating the situation. Tom's mother struggles to get him to confront his alcoholism.
Mosquitoes bite people.
A housewife combats neighbors' apathy to eliminate mosquito breeding areas. Clerks in a store are surly and rude. New manger confronts the bad attitudes of the sales staff. Children are abused in an orphanage. A clerk searches for evidence to expose abuse in an orphanage.