I found a quote that helped clear up my confusion!
E. M. Forster, in his book Aspects of the Novel. He says:
"'The king died and then the queen died,' is a story.
‘The king died, and then the queen died of grief,’ is a plot.
The time-sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
I was considering the first part to be an example of something that was plot driven and the second to be character driven. Both aspects (of plot and character) are required to create a plot instead of a story.
I got lost in the semantics of it lol