July 29, 1714 is the day that 23-year-old Addie LaRue is supposed to marry Roger, a widower from her small French village of Villon-sur-Sarthe. But Addie has no desire to marry Roger and spend the rest of her life caring for his children and performing other domestic duties. She desires a life of freedom and adventure, so she runs to the surrounding woods and prays to “the old gods” to help her. Estele, an eccentric old woman from Addie’s village, taught Addie how to pray to the old gods. She stressed that Addie should be careful what she asks of them and, most importantly, “never pray to the gods that answer after dark.” But Addie fails to heed Estele’s warning and continues to pray, not realizing that darkness has fallen. Soon, a god that resembles the handsome stranger Addie has fantasized about since adolescence answers Addie’s prayers and agrees to grant Addie the “freedom” and “more time” that she desires—if she promises to surrender her soul to him once she grows bored or tired of her immortality. Addie agrees, then she sinks into the darkness.
When Addie comes to, it’s light outside; she no longer hears the wedding party calling after her. She returns to her house in Villon and is shocked when her mother and father don’t recognize her; they claim that they’ve never had a daughter. Addie wanders over to Estele’s cottage, but Estele, too, fails to recognize Addie. Addie realizes that her deal with the old god (whom Addie will later name Luc) has a cruel, unexpected caveat. Luc has given Addie the freedom and immortality she asked for, but the tradeoff is that she must live an “invisible” life in which everyone she meets (and even people she’s known her entire life) forget her immediately. Luc’s deal—which Addie will come to think of as a curse—also prohibits her from uttering her name or telling anyone her story.
Realizing that living as a stranger among people she’s known her whole life will be an impossibly painful experience, Addie decides to leave Villon. She heads to the nearby city of Le Mans, where she used to accompany her father, a woodworker, to sell his wares. But Addie’s invisibility makes it hard for her to find food and shelter, and she struggles. Nevertheless, Addie is determined not to give in to Luc, who is convinced from the start that Addie’s loneliness will eat away at her until she begs him to take her soul and put her out of her misery. And so, Addie perseveres, learning as she goes. From Le Mans, she ventures to Paris, and from there, she travels throughout Europe, eventually crossing the ocean to the U.S. Years pass, and Addie lives through notable historical events and eras, such as the French Revolution and the Enlightenment. Luc often visits Addie on the “anniversary” of the day they arranged their deal to taunt her and try to get her to surrender to him. But Addie refuses to give in to loneliness and misery. She experiences pain, cold, hunger, and must resort to sex work to support herself. But despite these hardships, Addie maintains her open, curious attitude toward the world, and each day that she’s able to taste, learn, and experience something new reminds her that those hardships are worth it.
In time, Addie learns new ways to circumvent the rules of her curse. Though she can’t get people to remember her, she can model for and inspire various artists who then recreate the “idea” of her in their paintings, sculptures, and music. In this way, Addie leaves a lasting impression on people’s lives, even as the physical memory of her erodes.
Luc continues to visit Addie to try to manipulate her into giving in to him. Addie hates Luc. She resents that he twisted her words to turn her simple desire for freedom into a chaotic nightmare. At the same time, she’s attracted to him. And the fact that nobody remembers Addie means she’s incapable of developing meaningful, long-lasting relationships with any mortal. Luc, therefore, becomes the only constant in her life, and she comes to look forward to his visits and misses him when he’s not around. Luc eventually returns to Addie the wooden ring that her father made for her, a prized position that Addie originally tried to use as payment for her immortality. Luc rejected the ring in the woods that night, explaining that he needed something far more valuable—Addie’s soul—to seal the deal. But now he returns it to her, explaining that all she needs to do is slip the ring onto her finger, and Luc will come to her. Addie decides never to summon Luc, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing her weak and desperate. She tries to lose the ring, but each time she does, it magically finds its way back to her.
In 1952, when Addie is living in the U.S., she and Luc begin a decades-long romance. Addie ultimately breaks off the relationship in 1984, believing that Luc’s “love” is merely another calculated effort to manipulate her into surrendering her soul to him. In retaliation, Luc burns down the house in New Orleans they’ve been living in together.
By 2014, Addie has endured her curse for nearly three centuries and is living in New York City. It’s March, which means there are only four months to go until Addie and Luc’s 300-year anniversary. She hasn’t seen Luc since their breakup in 1984. Everything changes when Addie meets Henry Strauss, a young bookstore employee who vaguely resembles Luc and seems irredeemably lost and sad. Addie enters The Last Word, the bookstore where Henry works, and tries to steal a book (stealing is easy for her, since nobody recognizes her once a door shuts between them). Addie returns the next day with the stolen book and is shocked when Henry remembers her and calls her out for stealing. Addie is equally shocked and elated that finally, after all this time, somebody hasn’t forgotten her. Not only this, but Addie can say her name in front of Henry and tell him her story. Addie and Henry fall in love, and they eventually learn that they’ve both made deals with Luc—this is why their curses don’t work on each other as they do on the rest of the world.
Henry explains his curse to Addie: Luc confronts Henry late one night when Henry, beside himself after his girlfriend Tabitha rejected his marriage proposal and then broke up with him, climbed to the roof to a tall building and prepared himself to jump. Luc offered to give Henry what Henry wanted most: to be loved. At first, the deal was great. Everyone wants or loves Henry. His family used to be disappointed in him for being so sad, aimless, and confused, but now they’re proud of him for no reason at all. Everyone wants to date him, and everyone thinks he’s charming, smart, and funny. But Henry soon realized that none of this is real. People aren’t really seeing him—just whatever version of him Luc’s power has enchanted them to see. Like Addie, Henry realizes that his deal with Luc has never been anything but a curse. But Henry doesn’t share with Addie the most troubling aspect of his curse: that it’s only good for one year. After one year has passed, Luc will come for Henry, and Henry will die. Addie can sense that Henry isn’t telling her everything, but she’s so happy to finally have a real relationship with someone that she ignores her concerns. The more time Henry and Addie spend together, the deeper their feelings for each other become.
But as the 300-year anniversary of Addie’s deal with Luc gets closer, Addie becomes increasingly terrified that he will reappear and ruin everything she’s built with Henry. And this is exactly what happens. On July 29, 2014, Addie and Henry are at a bar when the bartender hands Addie a glass of Champagne with a rose petal floating in it—the drink that Luc always uses as a calling card when he reappears in Addie’s life. Though Addie originally thought that Luc messed up when he allowed Addie and Henry to meet, each rendering the other’s curse moot, Luc informs her that the opposite is true. He tells her that he intentionally allowed Henry and Addie to meet. He wanted Addie to fall in love with Henry—and then be forced to grieve him when he dies in a few weeks. Luc orchestrated this cruel plot to show Addie that mortal love is fragile, complicated, and not worth the pain it causes.
But Luc’s plan backfires. Rather than write off mortal love and run back to Luc, as Luc expects her to do, Addie doubles down on her love for Henry. This enrages Luc. He takes Addie out for a romantic evening to try to win her back, but she’s already made up her mind.
Henry and Addie try to make the most of Henry’s last weeks of life. They enjoy just being together, and they drive upstate to look at the stars. Henry accepts that his end is near and makes peace with how everything has turned out. Unbeknownst to Henry, Addie sneaks out to meet with Luc shortly before the day Henry is scheduled to die. She makes a new deal with Luc: she will be Luc’s lover until he no longer wants her. In exchange, Luc will let Henry live.
The night that Henry is supposed to die, he and Addie go to the rooftop from which Henry nearly jumped exactly one year ago. There, Addie tells Henry about the new deal she made with Luc. The news devastates Henry, but Addie tells him she’s lived enough life—now it’s Henry’s turn to make the most of his. She makes Henry promise to remember her, and then she vanishes.
Henry mourns Addie’s loss but vows to honor his promise to remember her. He finds the notebooks in which he documented the stories Addie told him about her long, invisible life. He uses these stories to create his first novel, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Later, Addie sees Henry’s book at a shop in London and marvels at her story, visible after so many years of invisibility. She’s with Luc now, honoring the new deal she made with him. Inwardly, she relishes the knowledge that she has tricked Luc the same way he tricked her all those years before: she didn’t tell him she’d be his “forever”—she told him she’d be his until he no longer wanted her, and she will do everything she can to make him stop wanting her. For now, though, Addie says nothing and only smiles as Luc appears behind her and pulls her into an embrace.
