How Recursion Calls Are Made

How the recursion works. I tried to figure out writing down low, mid, high at each recursive call. But I seem to be making a mistake somehow. I don't understand where the values are returned to in

if(leftmax>rightmax){
return leftmax;}
else
return rightmax;

Here's the code:

public class Maximum{
public static int max(int[] a,int low,int high){
int mid,leftmax,rightmax;
if(low==high)
return a[low];

[Code] ....

firstly leftmax=max(a,0,4)

Then what is the next line executed?Is it rightmax=max(a,5,8).

After this is it leftmax=max(a,5,6)

rightmax=max(a,7,8)

I tried to understand what these recursion calls by writing them down.But I somehow make a mistake.