The Notebook

A closer look at the story

An elderly man reads the same story every day from a faded notebook to a woman who has Alzheimer's. The story begins in the 1940s in Seabrook, a seaside town in North Carolina. Allie, the daughter of a wealthy family who has come to spend a quiet summer there, meets Noah, a young labourer, at a carnival. Ignoring the gulf in class between them, they share a dreamlike summer and fall deeply in love. But the Second World War tears the two young people apart, and life sends them down different paths. Adapted from Nicholas Sparks's novel and directed by Nick Cassavetes, the 123-minute 2004 film stars Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, Gena Rowlands and James Garner in a moving romantic drama.