The story follows Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) and Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams). They meet at a carnival one night, and Noah falls in love with Allie right away. Noah's pals set them up on a date after one unsuccessful attempt to secure a date with her. They eventually start dating exclusively. One day while out walking his dog, Boogie, Noah sees a young girl being attacked by a bear. He kills the bear in self-defense but realizes that he has saved someone else's life. He decides to build an ark to save both humans and animals. Noah builds the ark over several months with help from his family and friends. On the day before Noah is supposed to leave for the ark, he learns that the government will not let anyone board the ship unless they can provide their own food. This makes building the ark too expensive for him so he breaks up with Allie instead. Just before he leaves, though, she tells him that she loves him and that she will wait for him. After many years have passed, Noah finds out that Allie has been killed by an arrow shot by her boyfriend who had found out that she was waiting for Noah. Heartbroken, he builds another ark and sets off into the sunset... only to be stopped once again by an arrow that hits its target this time. It turns out to be Boogie, who has grown up and now belongs to Noah.