A young Southern belle becomes the mistress of a magnificent plantation.
In the pre-Civil War South, a woman marries the son of a plantation owner and becomes consumed with controlling the estate.
Sarah nearly loses her plantation, first to financial difficulties and then to fire; bitter over her husband's infidelity, she finds herself falling in love with a portrait painter.
Determined to rebuild her war-ravaged plantation, Sarah remains steadfast until her former lover, Casey Troy, returns to the South as a Union Army officer.
