An oldie but a goodie from libraryland's own Jessamyn West, here's a list of the seven core plots in literature I found via a recent Reddit post.
I remember learning a version of this list in grade nine English that only had four items (which I've put in bold below) but always trying to prove what a genius I was, I came up with “Man vs. Time” as something that wasn't covered by the four on the teacher's list.
The teacher said that was the same as “Time vs. Nature” but I argued that there was a difference between a character trying to do something before a time bomb went off and a character trying to escape a hurricane.
According to this list, I wasn't right (or I've come up with the eighth plot – maybe I am a genius after all? 😎) but I was definitely on the right track in thinking that four wasn't enough to sum up all the permutations.
1 - [wo]man vs. nature
2 - [wo]man vs. man
3 - [wo]man vs. the environment
4 - [wo]man vs. machines/technology
5 - [wo]man vs. the supernatural
6 - [wo]man vs. self
7 - [wo]man vs. god/religion