Gone with the Wind, set against the background of the American Civil War of 1861–65, has sold twenty-eight million copies since its publication in 1936. It is one of the greatest love stories ever written. Part One of the novel follows its heroine Scarlett O’Hara through the Civil War between the Northern states and the Southern states. At the beginning of Part Two of the novel, the defeated South lies in ruins and Scarlett must work the soil of her family’s plantation, Tara, with her bare hands to survive. Worse still, the North is demanding taxes from the large estates, and Scarlett has no money to pay, so she will have to struggle to help her family survive.