Scarlett is a woman who can deal with a nation at war, Atlanta burning, the Union Army carrying off everything from her beloved Tara, the carpetbaggers who arrive after the war. Scarlett is beautiful. She has vitality. But Ashley, the man she has wanted for so long, is going to marry his placid cousin, Melanie. Mammy warns Scarlett to behave herself at the party at Twelve Oaks. There is a new man there that day, the day the Civil War begins. Rhett Butler. Scarlett does not know he is in the room when she pleads with Ashley to choose her instead of Melanie.

Smooth cowboy Dan Kehoe arrives at a ranch run by an old widow and her four daughters-in-law. He’s been tipped off that the proceeds of a gold robbery are hidden on the ranch and only one of the women knows where. He plays them off against each other in his quest to discover the location.

Marion is a factory worker who hopes to trade the assembly line, for a beautiful penthouse apartment. Mark Whitney, a wealthy and influential lawyer can make her dreams come true, but there is only one problem, he will give her everything but a marriage proposal. Will this affair ever lead to marriage?

Having missed connections with a maharajah, gorgeous, adaptable playgirl Eloise Kelly descends upon white hunter Vic Marswell. After brief resistance, they fall into each other’s arms. Then anthropologist Donald Nordley arrives; Vic is inexplicably drawn to Mrs. Nordley, a blonde twit. Kelly, her departure delayed, must go along on the Nordley safari where the two women clash over Vic. Much local color along the way.

Roslyn divorces Ray in Reno and then meets widower Guido. He likes her but introduces her to cowboy Gay, and those two fall in love. When she learns that Gay, Guido and Perce are going to turn wild horses (“misfits”) into dog food, she protests.