To me, story is being. It would take on a narrative form of a story. So for me, story is consciousness. Plot is moving the characters around on the stage, getting them into the right scene, out of the right scene. That's mechanical and it's done during the writing process.
Story is completely different from that.
Story is what happens and why. There always has to be a person in it. Events are interesting, but only in relation to people. There is a character involved because there must always be a human being present. But it's not about character.