The fracture behavior of semicrystalline polymers is controlled by the micromechanisms associated with formation and breakdown of a plastic deformation region at notches, cracks, or other stress raising defects. In this context, it is widely acknowledged that material toughness may arise from the volume of the plastically deformed crack tip region along with energy dissipating structural changes of the material within this region. In general, a wide variety of such structural mechanisms are concernable, and little is known so far on specific details. Recently, scanning small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering approaches with positional resolution in the micron range have demonstrated to make such structural information at the supramolecular level accessible. This methodology was used in the present investigation to study the plastic deformation-induced structural changes ahead and around crack tips in a film of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF). The PVDF investigated exhibited a crystalline morphology of the alpha-form in the initial state. The micromechanisms of cavitation and fibril formation in highly stretched double-edge notched tensile specimens were elucidated for the mid-rib and outer plastic zone in a position resolved manner. Of particular importance, a phase transformation from a alpha-to-beta morphology was detected at room temperature in the crack tip plastic deformation zone, depending on the position and distance relative to the crack tip. The various features of the plastic deformation process (cavities, fibril diameters, main fibril orientations, alpha-to-beta-phase ratios) were analyzed and assessed semiquantitatively.