The Notebook

The movie starts off with an old man in a nursing home reading a story to an old woman each day. The story he reads is about two young lovers named Allie Hamilton and Noah Calhoun. They met one evening at a carnival many years ago. Although Allie refuses Noah's request to go on a date at first, she changes her mind after a double date with her friend. After that, they spent the whole summer together. Allie's parents disapproved of this and separate Noah and Allie because of Noah's lack of wealth. After waiting for Noah to write to her for several years, Allie meets and becomes engaged to a handsome young soldier named Lon.

Allie did not know that Noah had written 365 letters, one letter a day for a year. He stops writing after a year because he had never gotten a response. In a local newspaper years later, Noah's picture catches Allie's eye. He is standing in front of a fully restored, 200 year-old home. The article is filled with praise for his accomplishments. Allie's heart nearly bursts and she faints; the last time she saw the house it was rotted and decaying, and Noah spoke of his plans to buy and renovate the house.

With her love for Noah still alive, the picture pulls at her heart. She feels she must go back, see if Noah is okay, and tell him about her marriage. Noah seems distant when first seeing Allie. However, he invites her in after she mistakenly drives into his fence. Noah and Allie have lunch, visit and Noah walks her to her car later that evening. He asks her to come back the next morning, as he has something he wants to show her. Allie goes to her hotel, where she gets a phonecall from Lon. She tells Lon that she's tired, and will call him the next day. She goes back to Noah's house in the morning and he takes her out on the lake in a rowboat. Noah shows Allie a part of the lake, where hundreds of white ducks are gathered. It starts to rain heavily, and turns into an absolute downpour. They both wonder why each other ended the relationship and Allie says that she was never ready for the relationship to be over, to which Noah replies "It never was over for me, it still isn't over", Allie asks Noah why he never wrote to her. Noah tells Allie that he wrote 365 letters but she apparently had never received them, and he then kisses Allie passionately. He carries her into the house, where they make love for the first time. When Allie's mother comes to pick her up after a few days, she learns that her mother's true love is a lumberjack whom she visits to see and wonder what would've happened had she followed her heart. She then leaves Allie to decide who she would like to be with after giving her the letters that Noah sent. Allie is then faced with the decision of picking between her finance Lon, and her true love Noah.

In the end, she realizes that she needed Noah in her life. She returned to Noah and they lived a long, wonderful life together. Allie gets Alzheimer's and soon forgets all of her life with Noah. Noah reads from a notebook Allie had written about all that happened in their life together, and soon gets Allie to remember, despite what her doctors said. At night, Noah sneaks into Allie's room and they die together peacefully in their sleep.