Am I right in my understanding that in the first Page of a Scene, the only way to claim a side in a conflict is to either spend a Story Token to create a conflict, or introduce a free conflict (from an Examplar)?

It seems that there will be conflicts resolving on every page after the first one, because you can claim on pretty much every page. I'm trying to sort out the order of things in my brain.

Page --> Claims --> Actions (including introducing new Conflicts) --> Resolve claimed conflicts

Is that right?

Sorry for the deathly slow response on this. I don't know how I missed it.

Yes, you are correct. Under normal circumstances the first Conflict won't get resolved until the end of the second Page.