The Notebook is a 2004 romantic drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes and written by Jeremy Leven from Jan Sardi's adaptation of the 1996 novel by Nicholas Sparks. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as a young couple who fall in love in the 1940s. Their story is narrated from the present day by an elderly man, (portrayed by James Garner), telling the tale to a fellow nursing home resident (played by Gena Rowlands, who is Cassavetes's mother).

At a modern-day nursing home, an elderly man, Duke, reads a romantic story from his notebook to a fellow patient.

In 1940, Seabrook Island, South Carolina, poor lumbermill worker Noah Calhoun sees 17-year-old heiress Allison "Allie" Hamilton at a carnival, pursues her and they have a summer love affair. Noah takes Allie to an abandoned house that he intends to buy for them. They try to have sex for the first time, but are interrupted by Noah's friend Fin with the news that Allie's parents have the police looking for her.

When Allie and Noah return to her parents' mansion, Allie's mother Anne calls Noah trash and not right for her and they ban her from seeing him. Noah walks out and Allie chases after him; an argument ensues, leading the two to break up. The next morning, Anne announces that the family is returning home to Charleston. Allie attempts to contact Noah, but is unable to find him, so she asks Fin to tell Noah that she loves him. When Noah gets the message he rushes to Allie's home, only to find the house gated up and empty.

Noah writes to Allie every day for a year but Anne intercepts the letters so that they never reach Allie. Noah enlists with Fin to fight in World War II, where Fin is killed in battle. Allie volunteers in a hospital for wounded soldiers, where she meets captain Lon Hammond Jr., a young lawyer who comes from old Southern money. After a few years being together, the two become engaged, to the delight of Allie's parents.

When Noah returns from the war, his father has sold their home so that Noah can buy the abandoned house. While visiting Charleston, Noah witnesses Allie and Lon kissing at a restaurant; he convinces himself that if he refurbishes the house, Allie will come back to him. Later, while Allie is being fitted for her wedding dress, Allie is startled and faints when she sees in the newspaper that Noah has completed the house to the specifications she made years before.

After Allie asks permission from Lon to take a little trip before the wedding, Allie returns to Seabrook to find Noah living in the restored house. The two renew their relationship and have sex. Several days later, Anne appears on Noah's doorstep to warn Allie that Lon has followed her to Seabrook. Anne reveals that, in her youth, she had been in love with a lower-class young man and was still thinking about him; Anne then gives Allie the letters that Noah wrote to her as an admission that she had hidden them from Allie. Subsequently, Allie confesses to Lon that she had spent time with Noah, and eventually returns to her relationship with Noah.

In the present narrative, it is revealed that the elderly woman is dementia-stricken Allie, Duke is actually her husband Noah and that he had been told by Allie during the early stages of her illness to re-read their journals to help her recall her past. She briefly remembers Noah but soon forgets; her ensuing panic forces medical personnel to sedate her. Noah suffers a heart attack and is sent to the hospital, while Allie is sent to a dementia ward in the same hospital. Noah visits Allie's room at midnight, causing her to remember him again. He proceeds to remind her of her illness, though he reassures her that they can do anything with the love they share. They kiss, hold hands and fall asleep together, with Noah telling Allie, "I'll be seeing you". In the morning, a nurse discovers that they have died in their sleep, with their hands still clasped together. 1

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