Spoiled, selfish, beautiful and seventeen - Scarlett O'Hara of Tara always got whatever she wanted. Except Ashley Wilkes. He is to marry his mousy little plain cousin Melanie. Scarlet almost can't bear it. She especially can't bear the teasing of Rhett Butler, who overhears her declaration of love for Ashley and Ashley's gentle but firm refusal. Rhett nevertheless continues to court Scarlett through the early days of the Civil War. But Scarlett's world is turned upside down when the Northern Army reaches Atlanta and she must flee with Melanie, who has just given birth to Ashley's son and a frightened servant - to return to a Tara almost destroyed by war, her father's mental breakdown and the death of her mother. The few servants that are left and Scarlett's younger sisters look to her to care for, feed and protect them and she turns all her stubborn willfulness to survival, planting cotton and keeping the land. Melanie, physically weakened by childbirth must be nursed. Yet she battles on, doing anything - literally anything - to survive. Until Rhett Butler re-enters her life as dramatically as he left it. Margaret Mitchell always intended that the book's central character would be Melanie - but she found 'the other woman was taking over'.