By Alfi

TOTALLY only loosely based on The Notebook:

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

In 1940, at a carnival in Medford, Massachusetts, poor lumber mill worker Dotty sees 61-year-old heiress Tony Monaco, who is spending the summer in town with his parents. She pursues him and they begin a summer romance. One night, Tony Monaco goes over to Dotty’s house and meets her fathers, Gill Nemo and Willy Free, who immediately like him and take him under their fins as one of their own. Three days later, Dotty is invited to Tony Monaco’s house by his parents Daddy Monaco and Mommy Monaco so they can meet her, but unlike Gill Nemo and Willy Free, they are unimpressed with Dotty. That evening, Dotty takes him to the abandoned Eaton that she intends to buy and restore for them. While there, they attempt to make love for the first time, but Tony Monaco is nervous and rambling on. They are shortly interrupted by Dotty’s friend Fin with the news that Tony Monaco’s parents have the police looking for him.

When Tony Monaco and Dotty return to his parents’ mansion, Tony Monaco’s parents, particularly his mother Mommy Monaco, make it clear they do not approve of the relationship and forbid him from seeing her. Overhearing Tony Monaco’s mother’s insults, Dotty walks out, and Tony Monaco chases after her. An argument ensues, and Tony Monaco breaks up with Dotty, but he quickly regrets it. The next morning, Mommy Monaco announces that the family is returning home to Wilmington, Delaware immediately. Tony Monaco can’t find Dotty, so he asks Fin to tell her he loves her. Dotty rushes to Tony Monaco’s home, but finds it empty.

Dotty writes a letter to Tony Monaco every day for a year, but Tony Monaco’s mother intercepts them. After 365 letters, Dotty stops writing. She enlists with Fin to fight in World War II, where Fin is killed in battle. Tony Monaco volunteers as a nurse’s aide in a hospital for wounded soldiers, where he meets Leo Rafael Leif, a “young” MIT president who comes from 💃perras de gran botín💃.

After a few years, the two become engaged, to the delight of Tony Monaco’s parents.

Dotty returns from the war to find that her father sold their home so Dotty could buy Tufts University. She convinces herself that if she restores the university, Tony Monaco will come back to her. While Tony Monaco is being fitted for his wedding dress, he spots a story in a newspaper about the academic building Dotty completed. He faints.

Tony Monaco is overwhelmed with memories and unresolved feelings for Dotty, and asks permission from Leo Rafael Leif to take a trip before the wedding. He returns to Medford to find Dotty living in their dream house. The two rekindle and consummate their relationship. Several days later, Mommy Monaco appears on Dotty’s doorstep to warn Tony Monaco that Daddy Monaco has followed him to Medford. She also reveals that, like her son, she once loved a lower-class “young” fish, and still thinks about him. She gives Tony Monaco the letters Dotty wrote.

After an emotional argument with Dotty, Tony Monaco makes the difficult choice to drive back to his hotel and confess his infidelity to Leo Rafael Leif. Leo Rafael Leif says he still loves him and wants him back, but Tony Monaco decides to return to Dotty.

In the present, it turns out the elderly fish listening to the story is Dotty, now stricken with a concussion from running into a glass wall. During the early stages of her illness, Dotty had written a journal detailing their romance and life together so Tony Monaco could read it to her to help her remember. One day as he is reading the notebook, she briefly recognizes him. She asks how long they have before she forgets again, and Tony Monaco tells her she has no more than five minutes. They dance on the Jumbo Statue.

Dotty quickly relapses and panics, and TEMS must sedate her. Tony Monaco falls off of Jumbo’s mighty booty and is hospitalized, and Dotty is sent to a concussion ward in the same hospital. Upon recovering, and despite not being allowed in, Dotty visits Tony Monaco’s room in the night, and she remembers him again. They kiss, hold hands, and fall asleep. In the morning, a nurse finds them both dead, their fin and hand still clasped together.