Gone with the Wind is a recorded work.
Gone with the Wind (film) . Set in the American South against the backdrop of the American Civil War and Reconstruction era , the film tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara , the strong-willed daughter of a Georgia plantation owner , from her romantic pursuit of Ashley Wilkes , who is married to his cousin , Melanie Hamilton , to her marriage to Rhett Butler . The film is regarded as one of the greatest films of all time ; it has placed in the top ten of the American Film Institute 's list of top 100 American films since the list 's inception in 1998 , and in 1989 , the United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry .