‘The Notebook‘ by Nicholas Sparks is a short novel of eight chapters and less than a hundred pages. The events in the novel have three timelines and two narrative frames told in a combination of the first-person and the third-person points of view. Here is a summary of the work.
The Notebook ‘Spoiler-Free’ Summary
‘The Notebook‘ by Nicholas Sparks begins when Noah, who lives in a nursing home for old people, visits his wife Allie, who stays in another room in the same nursing home.
When Noah gets to Allie’s room, he sits down and begins to read to her from a notebook. The story Noah reads from the notebook is that of himself and Allie and tells of their reunion as lovers after fourteen years of separation. But Allie enjoys Noah’s reading without comprehending that she is one of the characters being read about.
From Noah’s reading, Noah and Allie fell in love when they met as teenagers in New Bern, North Carolina. They spend a passionate summer together, where they both lose their virginity. But after the summer, Noah and Allie are separated when Allie’s family moves out of New Bern. During this separation, Noah tries to stay in touch with Allie but is unable to reach her. Eventually, Noah tries to forget Allie and move on with his life. He gets a job where he impresses his employer and inherits a fortune, enlists in the army, and takes up a project of refurbishing an old house in New Bern where he intends to settle down. But despite all these, he is still unable to stop loving or thinking about Allie.
Allie, on her part, is engaged to be married in a few weeks but decides to visit Noah in New Bern to seek closure from an old flame.
However, things do not go as planned as Noah and Allie find themselves falling in love with each other again, and Allie is left with the difficult decision of choosing between her current fiancé Lon and her old flame Noah.
The Notebook Complete Plot Summary
Warning: This article contains spoilers and important details
Chapter One: Miracles
This chapter is titled “Miracles.” We are introduced to Noah, who at this point is frail at eighty years old, as he repeats his habit of visiting Allie’s room in the morning to read to her from an old notebook. Noah remarks to himself that the outcome of his visit to Allie is never predictable, but this never changes his resolve to visit her every day and to hope for a miracle that defies science and all odds. The content of the notebook Noah reads makes up the subsequent chapters.
Chapter Two: Ghosts
The second chapter, titled “Ghosts,” flashes back to Noah in his early thirties. He is a wealthy war veteran who is haunted by memories of his lost love but tries to pacify his mind through physical work and poetry. Noah lives in solitude with his dog Clem and with occasional companionship from his neighbors and beneficiaries, Gus and Martha.
Meanwhile, Allie is a few weeks away from getting married to a fellow socialite, Lon Hammond, who is also an exceptional lawyer. But when she reads a newspaper article about how Noah is reconstructing an old historic building in New Bern, she decides to visit New Bern and see Noah. Allie lies to her fiance that her visit to New Bern is just to shop for antiques. She checks into a hotel in New Bern and calls Lon from the hotel room. Satisfied that she would not speak on the phone with Lon for the rest of the day, she leaves the hotel and drives to Noah’s house.
Chapter Three: Reunion
In Chapter Three, titled “Reunion,” Noah is both delighted and surprised to see Allie in his driveway after fourteen years of separation, but he calmly welcomes her, and they have dinner together in his home. They do not talk much or catch up on lost time; they just eat together and enjoy each other’s company until late at night when Allie leaves with the promise of visiting the following day again at noon.
Chapter Four: Phone Calls
In this chapter captioned ”Phone Calls,” Lon calls Allie’s hotel late at night but does not receive a response. He calls the reception at the hotel and is informed that Allie had left the hotel hours ago. This makes Lon suspicious, and he begins to think of all the details that will enable him to make sense of the situation. Eventually, he remembers that Allie had once loved a boy in New Bern and connects Allie’s absence at the hotel to this old lover.
Chapter Five: ”Kayaks and Forgotten Dreams” and Chapter Six: ”Swarms and Storms”
The main occurrence in these chapters is Allie’s second visit to Noah. They go on a kayak ride in the creek where they see the scenic view of flowers, swans, and other beautiful elements of nature. They, however, get caught in the storm and hurriedly return to the house to warm up and have dinner. Allie is constrained to spend the night in Noah’s house because of the storm. After freshening up and having dinner together, Allie and Noah make love by the fireplace and reignite their passion and love for each other.
Chapter Seven: An Unexpected Visitor
Lon is worried when he cannot reach Allie at her hotel after many hours and numerous calls. Because of this, he excuses himself from a court hearing that had already commenced and headed to New Bern in search of Allie.
Anne arrives at New Bern ahead of Lon to warn Allie about Lon’s suspicion and arrival in New Bern. She then apologizes to Noah for how she treated him in the past and hands over Noah’s letters to Allie, which she had been intercepting and withholding over the years.
Allie thanks her mother for her eventual revelation, then taking the letters with her, she leaves Noah’s house to think about her choices and to finally decide who to marry.
Chapter Eight: Winter for Two
In Chapter Eight, ”Winter for Two” we return to the aged Noah, who has finished reading to Allie from the notebook. Allie, who suffers from dementia as a result of Alzheimer’s disease, asks Noah who Allie chooses at the end because she does not realize that she is the one in the story. Noah replies that Allie chose the one who was right for her.
Noah and Allie spend a romantic day together in the nursing home, but Noah does not remind her of her identity or her disease as he believes it will hurt her feelings. Allie regains her memory for a moment and professes her undying love for Noah, an action that defies all scientific explanations about her disease.
Noah suffers a partial stroke in addition to arthritis he suffers from, but when he recuperates a little, he continues his routine of visiting Allie’s room to read to her against all odds.
FAQs
What is the plot twist in ‘The Notebook?’
The plot twist in ‘The Notebook‘ is that Hannah, who is being read to from the notebook, happens to be Allie from the story being read, and the reader Duke happens to be Noah in the same story being read.
What did Anne Nelson hide from Allie in ‘The Notebook?’
Anne Nelson hid Noah’s letters from Allie because she did not want them together as a couple. Noah wrote countless letters to Allie for twelve years, but Anne ensured that none got through to Allie.
Why was Lon suspicious of Allie in ‘The Notebook?’
Lon was suspicious of Allie because of the numerous calls he put across to her, all of which she missed, and also because he realized that Allie had an old flame in the town she was visiting.
