I have previously written about how I setup this homepage with Drupal. In Drupal you define different types of content and can then decide where on the page it has to be presented - in which block it is to be presented. I will here give a short introduction to blocks.
When you log onto your Drupal site as administrator you can find an overview map of the layout of the site. For my site it looks like the picture.
Each yellow field in the picture represents a block, where I can present my content. I don't have to fill all the blocks and I can put multiple things in the same block.
Lets look at an example. On my site I have a content element that holds the copyright symbol, my name and the year. I have chosen to place this in the Footer First block to get this text on all pages. But in just a few clicks I can easily move this to the block Branding to have the text presented right below the logo.
The Menu block holds multiple elements, which as I mentioned isn't a problem. As administrator you simply have to choose the order in which the elements need to be presented. If some of the elements in a block have access restrictions Drupal will automatically make sure that these are not presented to users that do not have the appropriate access. As administrator you also have the power to control that some content is only presented to some users. For example I have an ad on my site. But I have chosen that if you are logged in the ad will not be presented.
If a block doesn't hold any content Drupal will make sure to automatically collaps the block so you will get the most out of your screen real estate for your content and not waste it on "empty content".
I hope this gave a little insight into how flexible Drupal is to configure. Eventhough it is an expression that I hate I will use it anyway here - and all of this without writing a single line of code.