Gerald O'Hara confirms to Scarlett that Ashley Wilkes is engaged to marry his cousin Melanie Hamilton.

Scarlett declares her love to Ashley in the Twelve Oaks library; he rejects her and walks away.

Scarlett impulsively accepts Charles Hamilton's marriage proposal just before the men leave to join the Confederate Army.

Charles Hamilton dies of pneumonia without seeing battle, leaving Scarlett a pregnant widow at seventeen.

Rhett Butler bids a large sum to dance with the widowed Scarlett at a charity bazaar, causing a public scandal.

Sherman's army besieges Atlanta and Melanie goes into labor at the worst possible moment.

With no doctor available, Scarlett delivers Melanie's baby boy during the Union bombardment of Atlanta.

Rhett drives Scarlett, Melanie, and the newborn through burning Atlanta before the city falls to Union forces.

Scarlett arrives at Tara to discover that her mother Ellen has died and the plantation has been devastated.

Scarlett shoots and kills a Yankee soldier who breaks into Tara intending to rob and assault her.

Scarlett tricks Suellen's fiancé Frank Kennedy into marrying her so she can use his money to pay Tara's taxes.

Frank Kennedy is killed during a Ku Klux Klan raid; Belle Watling provides alibis for the surviving men.

Rhett proposes marriage to Scarlett, kisses her passionately, and she accepts without quite intending to.

Rhett and Scarlett's daughter Bonnie is thrown from her pony and killed while jumping a hurdle.

Melanie dies and Scarlett runs home through the fog, finally understanding she has always loved Rhett.

Scarlett O'Hara's world is upended when the man she loves marries someone else and she impulsively weds a near-stranger before the Civil War swallows everything she knows. The war forces her to find reserves of courage she never knew she had, delivering a baby under siege and escaping a burning city with the help of the roguish Rhett Butler. Returning to her ruined plantation, she takes charge of a broken household and fights off Yankees, hunger, and the Reconstruction government to keep Tara alive. Two more marriages — one for survival, one for passion — reshape her life even as her obsession with Ashley Wilkes lingers beneath the surface. Tragedy strikes in the form of devastating losses, and only at the very end does Scarlett understand who she has truly loved all along. By then, Rhett is already walking out the door.

The headline events that drive Scarlett's story from belle to survivor.

Gerald O'Hara arrives in Atlanta to retrieve Scarlett; Rhett gets him drunk and wins his money at cards.

Rhett presents Scarlett with a green bonnet and warns her he always expects something in return for his gifts.

The Battle of Gettysburg casualty lists reach Atlanta; Scarlett frantically scans the names for Ashley Wilkes.

Ashley Wilkes returns home on a Christmas furlough and shares a farewell kiss with Scarlett on the day he departs.

Melanie announces she is expecting Ashley's child; days later, word arrives that Ashley has been captured by the Yankees.

Aunt Pittypat flees Atlanta for Macon as Union forces close in; Scarlett stays behind to care for Melanie.

Scarlett scavenges the ruined Twelve Oaks garden for root vegetables and vows she will never be hungry again.

Union soldiers ransack Tara and start a kitchen fire; Melanie beats out the flames and knocks Scarlett unconscious.

The South surrenders and defeated Confederate soldiers begin walking through Tara on their long roads home.

A sick Confederate soldier named Will Benteen is left at Tara, recovers, and becomes an invaluable member of the household.

Ashley Wilkes walks back to Tara on foot; Will Benteen quietly stops Scarlett from throwing herself into Ashley's arms.

Scarlett sneaks to the makeshift jail to beg Rhett for a loan; he tells her he has no money.

Rhett builds Scarlett a grand mansion in Atlanta and they host an elaborate housewarming party for the city's elite.

After Bonnie's birth, Scarlett tells Rhett to move out of their shared bedroom and he complies without protest.

While Scarlett recovers from a miscarriage, a grief-stricken Rhett breaks down and confesses his love to Melanie.

Behind the headline drama of war and survival lies a rich current of smaller events that quietly determine Scarlett's fate. From Gerald's embarrassing night out with Rhett in Atlanta to the anxious wait for news after Gettysburg, these moments reveal the texture of life during the war years and the shifting alliances that sustained Scarlett. The long road back from ruin at Tara is marked by acts of unexpected courage, the arrival of unlikely allies like Will Benteen, and the bittersweet return of Ashley. In the postwar years, Scarlett's bold business moves and a loveless new marriage reshape Atlanta's social landscape even as personal estrangements quietly deepen. The pool closes on Rhett's hidden confession of grief to Melanie — a moment of raw honesty he could never bring himself to share with his own wife.

The overlooked moments that shaped every turn of Scarlett's fortunes.

Gerald O'Hara tells Scarlett that land is the only thing in the world worth fighting and dying for.

News that war has broken out reaches the Twelve Oaks barbecue, shattering the last afternoon of the old world.

Scarlett blackmails Gerald into letting her stay in Atlanta by threatening to expose his drunken night with Rhett.

Scarlett secretly reads Ashley's war letters to Melanie, searching for proof that he does not truly love his wife.

On a carriage ride, Rhett tells Scarlett the Yankees will be in Atlanta within a month and bets her a kiss.

During the Atlanta siege, Scarlett receives word that her sisters and mother at Tara have all contracted typhoid.

On the road to Tara, Rhett declares his love to Scarlett, kisses her, then turns back to join the retreating Confederate Army.

Scarlett surveys the wreckage of Tara and resolves to take charge of her helpless, grieving, starving family.

Jonas Wilkerson arrives at Tara offering to buy it, revealing he deliberately engineered the family's crippling tax bill.

Scarlett runs into Suellen's fiancé Frank Kennedy in Atlanta and decides on the spot to steal him and his money.

Neighbor Tony Fontaine takes refuge at Scarlett's Atlanta home after killing two men; Scarlett learns the Ku Klux Klan has formed.

A drunken and jealous Rhett accuses Scarlett of infidelity after Ashley's birthday party and forces himself on her.

Scarlett falls down a full flight of stairs after Rhett's cruel remark about her pregnancy; she suffers a miscarriage.

Rhett secretly provides funds for Ashley to buy Scarlett's sawmills, freeing her from the business she built.

Scarlett tells Rhett she loves him after Melanie's death; he replies that he no longer cares and walks away.

Every pivot in Scarlett's long story is driven by a revelation or a choice made in a moment of desperation. Her father plants the seed of her lifelong attachment to Tara before the war begins, and the war's sudden announcement at Twelve Oaks ends the world she knew in an afternoon. The Reconstruction years bring a cascade of turning points — the discovery that Jonas Wilkerson engineered her ruin, the snap decision to steal Frank Kennedy, and the violent night that follows Ashley's birthday party. Each of these moments strips away another illusion, yet Scarlett refuses to be destroyed by any of them. Only when Melanie is dying does the final veil fall, revealing that her obsession with Ashley was always a fantasy and that Rhett was the man she truly loved. Her confession comes too late — Rhett has already spent his love — and she is left alone to face tomorrow.