Where and when does The Notebook take place? Details from the Nicholas Sparks book adaptation, explored

Before Noah ever started hammering away at a house or Allie showed up looking like a walking emotional plot twist, The Notebook was already out here setting the mood. Not with soft lighting and Ryan Gosling’s unfairly symmetrical face, but like, actual setting. The where and when of their story? It’s not just pretty background noise; it kind of does half the emotional heavy lifting.

Think slow Southern summers that feel like they never end, old-school charm, handwritten letters that smell like nostalgia and heartbreak. Everything’s happening in this very specific vibe, somewhere between a dream and a history book. And somehow, that makes every moment feel ten times more intense. Dramatic? Yes. But also relatable.

Anyway, we’re not here to dissect their love story or their ending. This is more like a soft launch into the world they existed in, the dusty porches, the war just around the corner, that weird kind of quiet you only get in a different decade. So grab your tea or coffee or whatever, maybe prepare your heart a little, and let’s step into the time and place that made Noah and Allie’s love story hit as hard as it does.

The film is based in the fictional town of Seabrooks but in reality is shot at the location of Charleston, South Carolina. The era in which the story takes place is the 1940s and the later years of the couple is show in the early 2000s.

What is The Notebook about?

The Notebook, as you'd already know, is one of the best cinematic love stories ever written and made into a film. It's the one that makes you dream of white houses and fair meet-cutes and love letters and fighting in the rain- basically the whole deal. We're here with Noah- a romantic, hardworking boy, played by Ryan Gosling, who falls in love with Ally- a feisty and fascinating young woman. Brought together by their love for life and affection for each other, they're separated by their class differences and the fact that Allie isn't here for a long time.

They spend this whirlwind summer together, fighting and making up and dreaming big, but life gets in the way. Her family takes her away, the war happens, and letters go undelivered (or more like intercepted, because her mom is in full villain mode). Time passes. A lot of it. And they both try to move on, she gets engaged to someone else. Noah builds this ridiculously beautiful house, just like he once promised her. Then, a plot twist: she sees the house in the newspaper and boom, everything comes rushing back.

She shows up. It’s awkward. Then emotional. Then romantic. Then raining. You know how it goes. But here’s the thing: this whole story is being read aloud by an old man to a woman in a nursing home. She has memory loss. And then it kinda hits you what the movie is about.

The Notebook is more than just a love story. It's about how love survives despite the burning weight of time, memory and everything that tries to bring you apart. It's about staying in love, rather than being in love and how that one small town held onto their love, even as one of them moved cities away.

What is the fictional town in The Notebook where the story takes place?

The Notebook is set in this fictional little Southern town called Seabrook, South Carolina, and honestly? It’s kind of the third main character.

It’s where they fall in love, mess things up, and somehow keep circling back to each other. It’s not flashy. It’s not busy. But it feels like love could last there, if that makes sense. Seabrook holds a lot of weight in the story. It's where Noah and Allie meet for the first time, it's where they fall in love, and where Noah pines for Allie all those years. It's where Allie makes her way back, in the end, and where she makes the choice to choose him for the rest of her life. Nicholas Sparks made it up, but it doesn’t feel made up. And in the chaos of their relationship, it’s the one thing that kind of stays. Doesn’t move. Just waits. Like it knows they’ll come back.

As for the era the film is from, The Notebook took place in the 1940s, and Allie and Noah met and fell in love shortly before the Second World War. In the film (and the book), Noah does join the army and fights in the war, after which he comes back to Seabrook and restores the White House. Years later, he meets her again in the late 1940s, and when we're following the couple in their late, last years, the decades have already passed, and we're now in the early 2000s.

But where was The Notebook actually filmed?

Seabrook may have been the backdrop to The Notebook's love story but the film was actually shot in the beautiful, dreamy town of Charleston, South Carolina.

Noah and Allie’s boat ride through the swan-filled waters? Filmed in the hauntingly beautiful Cypress Gardens. The grand Hamilton estate? That’s Boone Hall Plantation. Noah’s iconic white house by the lake? A real fixer-upper on Wadmalaw Island. Even their adorable movie date was shot at the retro American Theater in downtown Charleston. That restaurant scene where Noah sees her with Lon? Yep, filmed at High Cotton. Painful vibes, 10/10 tension.

And those emotional nursing home scenes that had everyone crying into their snacks? That was Rice Hope plantation now known as Black River plantation just casually wrecking us in the background. Honestly, Charleston didn’t just stand in the background looking pretty. It became part of the whole vibe. Like a quiet character in the love story, always there, always holding all those messy, unforgettable moments.

The Notebook isn’t just set in the 1940s, it kinda breathes that time. Everything’s slower. Messier. No texts or instant fixes, just people waiting on letters that might never come.

And Seabrook? It’s not just a backdrop, it’s like the heartbeat of the whole thing. Quiet streets, warm air, everything feeling like it’s been dipped in memory. Stuff feels heavier there. The love, the silence, even the fights. It’s not polished or fast-paced; it’s drawn out, like it wants you to sit with it. The time and place don’t just hold the story, they sort of are the story. You feel it.

The Notebook is available to stream on Prime Video.