For much of this millennium, Genie Francis has been enjoying the quiet life in Maine.

Except for a brief return in 2007 to the role that made her a household name – Laura Spencer on the ABC soap opera “General Hospital” – Francis, along with her husband, actor-director Jonathan Frakes, and their two children have been living in Belfast. That’s where she runs her eclectic home furnishings store The Cherished Home.

But a new telemovie, “The Note,” airing at 9 p.m. Saturday on the Hallmark Channel, lured Francis back to acting.

How did she get involved with “The Note,” based on the best-selling novel by Angela Hunt?

“My agent called me and sent me the script,” she recalled. “It’s a well-told story, and that’s all we can ask for. I did an audition on tape at The Post Office in Camden, and they sent it by computer to the producers.”

Francis, 45, plays Peyton McGruder, who writes a “Dear Abby”-type column for the Middleborough (N.C.) Times.

“Peyton is a very wounded person,” Francis explained. “She made a big mistake as a young woman, and she can’t forgive herself. She won’t move on at all. She asked for the ‘Heart Healer’ column, but she’s tanked it and is about to be fired. She’s so blocked in her own heart that she can’t write from the heart.”

Middleborough’s residents are shaken by the crash of Pan Transit Flight 848 at Christmastime. While she’s out running along the shoreline, Peyton comes across a piece of a life vest and a note that has been sealed inside a sandwich bag. It’s a father saying goodbye to his child, and it touches Peyton to the point of bringing her out of her fugue.

“It’s divine intervention,” Francis said. “She feels compelled to get the note to the right person.”

As she meets the handful of candidates with the first initial to whom the note is addressed, Peyton learns lessons about herself as well. She also tentatively starts a relationship with her friend and colleague King Danville (Ted McGinley). In the end, Peyton is on the way to healing her own heart.

Francis enjoyed filming “The Note” for a month last fall in Toronto.

“The people I got to work with were a competent, professional, happy group of people, and that’s rare in this business. I was really proud to be a part of them.”

After about five years away from acting, Francis is ready to get back to work and is hoping for a nighttime series. That hope has been complicated by the Writers’ Guild strike.

“Everything is on hold because of the strike,” she said.