A Civil War spectacular. Portrays life in the South during and after the Civil War as revealed in a story depicting the war itself, the conflict between the defeated Southerners and emancipated renegade Negroes, the despoiling of the South during the carpetbagger period, and the revival of the Southern white man's honor through the efforts of the Ku Klux Klan.

This epic Civil War drama, using the interwoven stories of two families, one Southern and one Northern, is one of the most influential films in the history of the cinema and, because of its racism, one of the most controversial.

A young woman is tricked into a false marriage, becomes pregnant, and finds herself out on her own with tragic results.