Judge William "Billy" Priest lives in a very patriotic (Confederate) southern town. Priest plays a laid-back, widowed judge who helps uphold the law in his toughest court case yet. In the meantime, he plays matchmaker for his young nephew.
Shortly after the United States enters World War I in 1917, a Broadway actress agrees to let a naive soldier court her in order to impress his friends, but a real romance soon begins.
美國南北戰爭前夕，南方農場塔拉莊園的千金斯嘉麗（費雯·麗 Vivien Leigh 飾）愛上了另一個農場主的兒子艾希禮（萊斯利·霍華德 Leslie Howard 飾），遭到了拒絕，為了報復，她嫁給了自己不愛的男人，艾希禮妻子梅蘭妮（奧利維婭·德哈維蘭 Olivia de Havilland 飾）的弟弟查爾斯?！ 馉幤陂g，斯嘉麗成為寡婦，失去母親，挑起生活的重擔， 不再是當初的千金小姐；戰爭結束后，她又兩度為人妻，嫁給了愛她多年的投機商人瑞德（克拉克·蓋博 Clark Gable 飾）?！ ∪欢?，縱使經歷了生活的艱苦，斯嘉麗對艾希禮的感情仍然沒有改變。艾希禮妻子梅蘭妮的去世，給了斯嘉麗一個機會，一邊是深愛自己的丈夫瑞德，一邊是心心念念多年的艾希禮？斯嘉麗會給自己怎樣一個不一樣的明天？