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In a household circuit, with a "hot" conductor insulated black and a white neutral, the black wire should connect to the center terminal of the socket. The outside part of the socket usually has a brass screw (for the black wire) and a nickel screw (for the white wire).
The hot wire's cover is smooth and connected to what I call the "button" at the bottom of the socket. The neutral wire's cover has ridges and is connected to the screw shell of the socket.
Wall receptacles are wired in parallel. black to black, white to white, ground to ground.
It is a series circuit, where all the lamps (for instance) is on the same wire. If one lamp fails, the rest lamps will also go out.
Because that completes a circuit. The live wire is one terminal of a high voltage transformer at the substation. The other terminal is grounded to earth ground, and earth is conductive.