[6] In 1863, the American Civil War is raging, and Great Britain and France have yet to enter into the conflict.

For the past year, British troops have been stationed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, carefully checking European passengers disembarking from foreign ships.

Traveling under the assumed name of Miss Lewly, Adèle finds accommodations at a boarding house run by Mr. and Mrs. Saunders.

Adèle finds a notary and inquires about a British officer, Lieutenant Albert Pinson, with whom she's had a relationship.

While showing some old photographs to Mrs. Saunders, she talks about her older sister Léopoldine Hugo, who died in a drowning accident at the age of 19 many years before, just after being married.

The next day, Adèle writes to her parents, telling them that she must be with her beloved Pinson and that they are planning to marry, but she will wait for their formal consent.

Adèle tries to persuade him, telling him that she's rejected another marriage proposal, threatens to expose him and ruin his military career, and even offers him money for his gambling debts, but he remains unmoved.

In the coming days, Adèle continues writing in her journal, convinced that she is Pinson's wife in spirit.

He notices one of her letters is addressed to Victor Hugo and informs Mrs. Saunders of the true identity of her boarder.

She follows him to a theater to see a hypnotist, where she is inspired to think that she can hypnotize Pinson into loving her; she is forced to abandon this plan once she learns that the hypnosis was faked.

François Truffaut has a brief, wordless cameo in the film as an officer Adele mistakes for Pinson in Halifax.

[1] Although Truffaut had once promised the role of Adèle to Catherine Deneuve, he decided he wanted a new star to play the lead.

He screen tested Stacey Tendeter, who had co-starred in his 1971 film Two English Girls, but, after seeing Isabelle Adjani's performances in La Gifle (1974) and on stage, he then decided to cast her.

Scenes set in Halifax were mainly interiors created in a house in St. Peter Port, Guernsey.

She is different from all the women in this profession and since she isn't even 20, add to all this (to her genius, let's not be afraid of words), an unawareness of others and their vulnerability, which creates an unbelievable tension.

[12]In his review in The New York Times, Vincent Canby called the film "profoundly beautiful", and Truffaut's "most severe, most romantic meditation upon love.

"[13] Canby continued: One of the fascinations of the Truffaut career is in watching the way he circles and explores different aspects of the same subjects that dominate almost all of his films.

However, The Story of Adèle H., impeccably photographed by Nestor Almendros (The Wild Child), looks and sounds like no other Truffaut film you've ever seen.

[14] The Story of Adèle H. was a modest financial success in France, where it sold 752,160 tickets,[15] but it was considered a box office disappointment.