he wealthiest man in the world, John P. Merrick, is a private person who likes to stay anonymous. One of his many assets, and a minor one at that, is Neeley's Department Store. There is labor unrest at the store, most of the employees' anger directed at Merrick, who they hang in effigy outside the store despite not knowing what he looks like. Merrick, not happy at what he sees going on, decides to go undercover working at the store to mete out the rabble-rousers. Undercover as Thomas Higgins, Merrick gets assigned as a sales clerk in the shoe department, where he is taken under the caring wing of his colleague Mary Jones, who sees in Higgins a poor man needing the guidance of friends. One of those other friends is Elizabeth Ellis, who Mary sees as a possible "Mrs. Higgins". Mary's boyfriend is Joe O'Brien, the chief organizer of the employees, four hundred of whom are following Joe in the charge against the store and Merrick. At the store, Merrick not only wants the list of the four hundred, but also wants to change those things he doesn't like at the store, chief amongst those being his shoe department section manager, Mr. Hooper. But as Higgins, Merrick also begins to see things a little differently, specifically from an employee's point of view.

美国南北战争前夕，南方农场塔拉庄园的千金斯嘉丽（费雯·丽 Vivien Leigh 饰）爱上了另一个农场主的儿子艾希礼（莱斯利·霍华德 Leslie Howard 饰），遭到了拒绝，为了报复，她嫁给了自己不爱的男人，艾希礼妻子梅兰妮（奥利维娅·德哈维兰 Olivia de Havilland 饰）的弟弟查尔斯。
　　战争期间，斯嘉丽成为寡妇，失去母亲，挑起生活的重担， 不再是当初的千金小姐；战争结束后，她又两度为人妻，嫁给了爱她多年的投机商人瑞德（克拉克·盖博 Clark Gable 饰）。
　　然而，纵使经历了生活的艰苦，斯嘉丽对艾希礼的感情仍然没有改变。艾希礼妻子梅兰妮的去世，给了斯嘉丽一个机会，一边是深爱自己的丈夫瑞德，一边是心心念念多年的艾希礼？斯嘉丽会给自己怎样一个不一样的明天？