[1][2] The film centres on Donna (Michèle Chicoine) and Gail (Jackie Burroughs), two young women who work together at a dress factory and live together as roommates, tracing the evolution and decline of their friendship in a documentary-style format.
[1] It shows the currents that brought them together and the facets of their natures that first made them seem compatible but eventually drove them apart.
Their story reflects, to a degree, the situation of anyone who has ever shared the life of another person.
[1] The characters of Donna and Gail recurred in Owen's 1967 feature film The Ernie Game.
[4] Prior to the release of The Ernie Game, in which Donna and Gail were involved in a love triangle with Alexis Kanner's Ernie, some critics who had seen only Notes perceived Donna and Gail as being in a quasi-lesbian relationship; however, Owen demurred on this perception by saying "I really don't know, because, well, what is a lesbian relationship?